Caprese Garlic Bread

I’ve always been a person who likes to keep busy. After all, idle handles are the devil’s play things. Nothing but trouble comes out of boredom. Well that last part’s not really true. In my case, naps come out of boredom.

But in the last few months and in the months to come, busy is taking on a whole new meaning. This Saturday, just ten days after arriving home from a long business trip I’m headed to Europe with Albert to see Josh and my sister from another mister, Jeanelle. Ten days after I get home from vacation I’m headed to Dallas, followed by Atlanta, followed by Colorado, and then right back to NYC just in time for my twenty-eighth birthday. Ugh. That one hurt a bit coming out.

Basically, I’m going to be a lot of places in a very short period. But I still want to get crazy in the kitchen even though I’m strapped for time. So don’t be surprised if most of my dishes in the not so distant future are quick and painless.

This appetizer/side dish combines two of my absolute favorite things in a flavor bomb. Caprese salad and garlic bread are pretty much popular with everyone. Vegans and gluten free friends excluded.

This idea popped into my head while I was in a pinch at the grocery store but it came together just as I had hoped it would. You might want to double the recipe because the fam was mad there wasn’t more.

You will need…

1 large baguette (French or sourdough), slice din half length wise

½ cup butter (1 stick), at room temperature

5 garlic cloves, finely chopped

1 cup basil, roughly chopped

2 vine ripened tomatoes, sliced ¼ inch thick

4 ounces fresh mozzarella, grated or sliced ¼ inch thick

2 tablespoons good olive oil

2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

Salt and pepper to taste

Start by preheating your oven to 400 degrees F.

In a food processor, combine the butter, garlic and 3/4’s cup of the basil. Season well with salt and pepper.

Blend until the butter is smooth and all ingredients are combined.

Spread a generous amount of the butter on both halves of the baguette.

Top the buttered bread with a layer of tomato and mozzarella and bake in the oven until the bread is golden brown around the edges and the cheese is melty. About 12 to 15 minutes.

Remove the bread from the oven, top with reserved basil, drizzled olive oil and balsamic vinegar and some fresh pepper. Slice and serve hot.

Love and Beer Floats

Angela 

Caprese Garlic Bread

1 large baguette (French or sourdough), slice din half length wise

½ cup butter (1 stick), at room temperature

5 garlic cloves, finely chopped

1 cup basil, roughly chopped

2 vine ripened tomatoes, sliced ¼ inch thick

4 ounces fresh mozzarella, grated or sliced ¼ inch thick

2 tablespoons good olive oil

2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

Salt and pepper to taste

Start by preheating your oven to 400 degrees F.

In a food processor, combine the butter, garlic and 3/4’s cup of the basil. Season well with salt and pepper.

Blend until the butter is smooth and all ingredients are combined.

Spread a generous amount of the butter on both halves of the baguette.

Top the buttered bread with a layer of tomato and mozzarella and bake in the oven until the bread is golden brown around the edges and the cheese is melty. About 12 to 15 minutes.

Remove the bread from the oven, top with reserved basil, drizzled olive oil and balsamic vinegar and some fresh pepper. Slice and serve hot. 

Grilled Bruschetta Portobellos

It is so funny how certain things really put the place you are in life in perspective.

I know I often joke that I don’t really feel like an adult. And truth be told, I really don’t.

Sure I’m almost all the way there, but I still live at home for goodness sake. I do have a couple things to accomplish before I can consider my self a full-fledged “grown up.”

You would think the fact that my closest friends are getting married, having babies and buying homes would make me feel like I was an adult. But, the thing that has made me feel most adult like is discussing my good friend Nicole’s guidance counselor job with her.

That’s right folks; she is a high school guidance counselor.

She councils people less than ten years younger than her.

She helps determine their future.

Adulthood is taking my friends and me by storm.

So here is a very adult dish. Fancy mushrooms always make me feel very adult.

You will need…

3 Portobello mushrooms

3 vine ripened tomatoes (2 if they are really large), diced

¼ cup chopped basil

2 garlic cloves, minced

2 ounces fresh mozzarella cheese, thinly sliced

Salt to taste

Start by heating your grill to a medium heat.

Top the mushrooms with the cheese and place them on the grill.

Cover the grill and cook the mushrooms until the cheese is nice and melted. About 15 minutes. You could also do this in your oven at 400 degrees F.

While the mushrooms are cooking, combine the tomatoes, basil and garlic in a medium bowl.

Season well with salt and toss well.

When the cheese is nice and melted, remove from the heat.

Slice the mushrooms and top with the tomato mixture.

Serve hot.

Love and Beer Floats

Angela

Grilled Bruschetta Portobellos

3 Portobello mushrooms

3 vine ripened tomatoes (2 if they are really large), diced

¼ cup chopped basil

2 garlic cloves, minced

2 ounces fresh mozzarella cheese, thinly sliced

Salt to taste

Start by heating your grill to a medium heat.

Top the mushrooms with the cheese and place them on the grill.

Cover the grill and cook the mushrooms until the cheese is nice and melted. About 15 minutes. You could also do this in your oven at 400 degrees F.

While the mushrooms are cooking, combine the tomatoes, basil and garlic in a medium bowl.

Season well with salt and toss well.

When the cheese is nice and melted, remove from the heat.

Slice the mushrooms and top with the tomato mixture.

Serve hot. 

Grilled Caprese Sandwiches

Tuesday night dinner conversation, while my boyfriend, my brother, my parents and I are chowing down on these sandwiches.

Albert: Do we really only get one sandwich each?

Me: I told you, I ran out of bread.

Mom: There was plenty of bread in the freezer.

Me: Um … like I said… I ran out of bread.

Wes: These are really good. I didn’t know how they would end up but they are really good.

Me: They are tasty. Albert, I know you love Asian fusion so I was thinking of doing another fun sandwich next week with the frozen meatballs. Kind of like an Asian barbeque sauce meatball sub but with some pickled veggies and maybe some Asian slaw.

Mom: (silently makes this face)

Me: Seriously mom?

Mom: What? I didn’t say anything.

Me: What do you mean you didn’t say anything? You’re face said it all. It was a combo of fear and disgust with a hint of smelling something stinky. I know that face. I make that face. I learned it from you.

I’m sure a similar conversation happened to the sad soul who suggested this delicious sandwich to his or her loved ones. Little did they know it would be pinned on Pinterest and tons of people would go on to make and enjoy it.

Tons.

So suck it doubting families of the world.

Support all of our crazy sandwich ideas. And then eat them quietly or feed them to the dog if they are gross.

You will need… (to make 4 sandwiches, plan accordingly or your bro will be very upset)

8 slices of sour dough bread

2 large ripe tomato at room temperature, sliced ¼ inch thick

2 balls of fresh mozzarella cheese at room temperature, sliced ¼ inch thick

4 tablespoons pesto

2 tablespoons olive oil

Salt and pepper to taste

Start by lightly brushing the sides of the bread that will be the outsides of your sandwiches (the sides that will be touching the pan).

Assemble your sandwich by applying about 1 tablespoon of pest to the inside layers of your sandwich.

Then lay down a solid layer of cheese followed by a solid layer of tomato.

Season with salt and pepper and plop down your top layer of bread.

Place the sandwich(es) on a large pan over medium high heat.

Cook until the slice of bread on the pan becomes golden brown and crisp.

Flip once.

Cook until the second slice of bread has become golden brown and the cheese has become ooey gooey. 

Yes, that is a technical term.

Remove from the pan, slice and serve.

Never be afraid to get creative!

Love and Beer Floats

Angela

Chicken Parmesan

It is always amazing/flattering/funny when someone I don’t know that well tells me they read my blog. I expect my friends and family to follow my every move religiously (or else), but if I don’t know you that well and you are excited about what I’m doing here, you get major points in my book. There are bonus points if you are a complete stranger.

Last week while I was standing frustrated at the communal printer, Jodie, a coworker I have always thought highly of walked by and started asking me about NFT. She was asking me if I ever post the recipes (I know I’m not always the best about this) because she would really like to try some of them. Not only did she skyrocket in coolness in my head and my heart, but she reminded me that the recipes are a major part of what I’m doing here. So, just for you Jodie, I’m going to try extra hard to post all the recipes. Down to every last vinaigrette and cocktail.

She also mentioned that her and her boyfriend had just got a new house and that the first meal the she made in it would have to be chicken parmesan. Well, ask and you shall received. I picked this recipe out of the 13,315,193 that there were floating out in internet land because it struck me as pretty classic and pretty speedy!

Congrats Jodie! Enjoy the new house and the new recipe.

Love and Beer Floats

Angela

Ingredients

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus 3 tablespoons

1 medium onion, chopped

2 garlic cloves, minced

2 bay leaves

1/2 cup kalamata olives, pitted

1/2 bunch fresh basil leaves

2 (28-ounce) cans whole peeled tomatoes, drained and hand-crushed

Pinch sugar

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

4 skinless, boneless, chicken breasts (about 11/2 pounds)

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

2 large eggs, lightly beaten

1 tablespoon water

1 cup dried bread crumbs

1 (8-ounce) ball fresh buffalo mozzarella, water drained

Freshly grated Parmesan

1 pound spaghetti pasta, cooked al dente

Directions

Coat a sauté pan with olive oil and place over medium heat. When the oil gets hazy, add the onions, garlic, and bay leaves; cook and stir for 5 minutes until fragrant and soft. Add the olives and some hand-torn basil. Carefully add the tomatoes (nothing splashes like tomatoes), cook and stir until the liquid is cooked down and the sauce is thick, about 15 minutes; season with sugar, salt and pepper. Lower the heat, cover, and keep warm.

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.

Get the ingredients together for the chicken so you have a little assembly line. Put the chicken breasts side by side on a cutting board and lay a piece of plastic wrap over them. Pound the chicken breasts with a flat meat mallet, until they are about 1/2-inch thick. Put the flour in a shallow platter and season with a fair amount of salt and pepper; mix with a fork to distribute evenly. In a wide bowl, combine the eggs and water, beat until frothy. Put the bread crumbs on a plate, season with salt and pepper. Heat 3 tablespoons of olive oil over medium-high flame in a large skillet. Lightly dredge both sides of the chicken cutlets in the seasoned flour, and then dip them in the egg wash to coat completely, letting the excess drip off, then dredge in the bread crumbs. When the oil is nice and hot, add the cutlets and fry for 4 minutes on each side until golden and crusty, turning once. Place the chicken in a large oven pan. Ladle the tomato-olive sauce over the chicken and sprinkle with mozzarella, Parmesan, and basil. Bake the Chicken Parmesan for 15 minutes or until the cheese is bubbly. Serve with your favorite pasta.

Wild Mushroom Ragu and Panzanella Caprese

This story is about two things. This story is about mushrooms and personal triumph. If you don’t like mushrooms and personal triumph, you should probably stop reading now.

Still with me? Great. Last night, NFT hit the road again. This time, Eric and I were heading up to Hollywood to check out my friend Lindsey K’s new house and cook for some of my nearest and dearest. Lindsey was in charge of getting all the ingredients, including the 2lbs of mushrooms, but I knew I had some key spices at home. I packed up my loot, grabbed my housewarming gift and headed out, locking the door from the inside as always. The second I heard the door close behind me, I knew. My keys were sitting on the kitchen table. Behind the locked door. On the third floor. With my roommate an hour away and not coming home for the night. Crap.

But, the show must go on! So, even though I knew I was coming home to an apartment I was not going to be able to get into, we made the sixteen mile trek (that took us an hour and fifteen minutes) to the city of stars.

Lindsey’s new place is adorable and bless her heart, she had already done a lot of the time consuming chopping for me. The second I got there we tag teamed a wild mushroom ragu with gnocchi and a hybrid of an Italian panzanella and caprese. Sounds fancy right? Wrong. Basically, ragu is a fancy name for pasta sauce and a caprese and panzanella hybrid is basically tomatoes with basil, mozzarella and bread on top. Don’t believe me? See for yourself…

After a delicious meal, my stomach ached from eating too much and laughing too hard and I knew it was time to head home and face reality. When we got home, we spent a good amount of time deciding whether or not it was reasonable to attempt to scale the wall. Since I already promised my mother I wouldn’t scale any more walls (maybe someday I will explain to you why I though scaling my wall in Croatia because I was locked out was a good idea), we opted for calling a locksmith.

As we sat there and waited for the locksmith that was going to be at least another 45 minutes and cost me at least $40, I was feeling pretty low. Until our savior rode up on this bike. God only knows why my neighbor was riding his bike home at 12 in the morning, but he was. And good lord am I grateful. He came up with a brilliant plan for us to go out his loft window onto the roof and climb in through my loft window. Thankfully Eric had opened the window earlier to get some air. Triumph! We didn’t have to sleep in the hallway or pay through the nose to have some stranger break into my home. All’s well that ends well. And all’s good that tastes good.

Love and Beer Floats

Angela

Wild Mushroom Ragu

Ingredients

1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil

1/2 large onion, diced

2 small carrots, diced

1 stalk celery, diced

2 pounds wild mushrooms, stemmed and diced if large

Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper

1/4 pound cremini mushrooms, stemmed and quartered

2 tablespoons tomato paste

1 cup dry white wine

1 cup canned whole San Marzano tomatoes

2 bay leaves

1/2 teaspoon ground coriander

1/2 teaspoon ground fennel seeds

Pinch of red pepper flakes

1 tablespoon fresh thyme

1 1/2 pounds fresh gnocchi

Mascarpone and/or fresh mint, for topping

Directions

Use our simple, step-by-step instructions for making homemade gnocchi.

Heat half of the olive oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Add the onion, carrots and celery and cook until soft, about 5 minutes. Add half of the wild mushrooms and cook until golden, 3 to 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper, then push to the edges of the pot. Add the remaining olive oil and wild mushrooms and cook 3 to 5 more minutes. Add the cremini mushrooms and cook 1 more minute. Season with salt and pepper.

Add the tomato paste and cook, stirring with a wooden spoon, about 2 minutes. Add the wine; cook, scraping up any browned bits, about 2 more minutes. Add the tomatoes, 2 cups water, the bay leaves, coriander, fennel, red pepper flakes, thyme, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and pepper to taste. Simmer over medium heat, about 30 minutes (thin with water if needed). Season with salt and pepper.

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the gnocchi, stir and cook for 1 minute after they float, about 3 minutes total. Transfer with a slotted spoon to the pot with the sauce and gently stir over low heat. Serve topped with mascarpone and/or mint.

Baked Panzanella Caprese

Ingredients

Butter, for greasing baking sheet

5 vine-ripened tomatoes, cut into 1/2-inch thick slices

2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

2 (8-ounce) balls fresh mozzarella cheese, sliced into 1/4-inch thick slices and patted dry with paper towels

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 packed cup chopped fresh basil leaves

Olive oil, for drizzling

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

4 to 8 (1/2-inch thick) slices country white bread

Directions

Put an oven rack in the center of the oven. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Butter a 9 by 12-inch rimmed baking sheet. Set aside.

Arrange the tomato slices on the bottom of the baking sheet in a single layer. Drizzle with the balsamic vinegar. Lay the cheese slices on top in a single layer. Sprinkle with the garlic and basil and drizzle with olive oil. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Arrange the bread slices on top and drizzle with olive oil. Bake for 25 minutes until the filling is bubbling and the bread is crisp and golden. Remove the pan from the oven and let cool for 5 minutes before serving.

summer has arrived

Here in California, we have quite the long "winter". Now, I realize that my version of "winter" is very mild, and completely pleasant compared to most parts of the world, but this is about me, and in my world, this was a very long winter! Usually by this time in June we haven't seen a single drop of rain in 3 months, but the rains have been dragging on and on this year. Ok, I'm going to stop complaining now, because the truth is, we need the rain, and I love rain. But, as much as I love rain, I love HEAT. I love sun, and summer clothes and sandals. I love cold beers, ice cream and watermelon. I love summer!

Yesterday felt like summer had finally arrived. So, Lish and I decided that for NFT we needed to bust out a summer favorite. Barbecue. A new food Tuesday where anything cooked must be on the barbecue. On the menu, chicken, tomatoes, avocado, jicama and great friends and family. LIsh and I were lucky enough to have two brothers over. Albert was here with W.J. and H.P. And yes, 90% of his friends names are initials. And Lish's brother Bryan stopped in to visit us on his trek from Oregon to Phoenix. Of course Josh and Eric were helping in the kitchen and supplying the booze. Booze... crucial for any summer get together.

Ok... enough talking... this food was gorgeous... picture time.

Jicama, tomato, mozzarella, avocado and corn salad. this is a summer must have. I'm making it gain Sunday for Father's Day. I highly suggest you try it! Plus, Jicama is probably my favorite ingredient of the moment. The best way to describe it is a combo of an apple and a potato. Sounds gross it is so delicious and takes flavors really well!

Finished plate... not that pretty... but god was it good!

Love and Beer Floats

Angela

For the dressing:

1 1/2 cups packed fresh cilantro

1/2 cup good-quality extra-virgin olive oil

2 tablespoons fresh lime juice

1 teaspoon finely grated lime zest

Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper

For the salad:

4 ears corn, kernels removed (about 3 cups)

1 1/2 pounds grape tomatoes, halved (about 3 cups)

1 pound fresh mozzarella, diced

2 medium avocados, diced

1 jicama diced

Directions

Combine the dressing ingredients in a blender, using 2 teaspoons salt, and pepper to taste; process until smooth. Combine the salad ingredients in a large bowl and toss with the dressing. Let sit at least 15 minutes before serving, or cover and refrigerate for up to 4 hours.