Grilled Cheese with Spinach and Pancetta

I've made this recipe twice-- it's that good! Thank you, Giada! Here is the recipe: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/grilled-cheese-with-spinach-and-pancetta-recipe/index.html with video! So you can watch her make it. Watching someone first helps. Of course this episode was for a children's party and that's where my taste buds are at! You can serve this as a grown up grilled cheese or as a kiddie grilled cheese-- how cool is that?! Grown up because it is more than cheese, butter, and bread. Kiddie because of the hidden spinach in there (one lady wrote under the comments section that she told her daughter these were special princess fiona sandwiches-- how cute!)

This is pretty easy to make but you use a lot of things so the clean up part takes a while. A food processor is a must in this or else it is really hard to combine the cheese and the spinach. I bought a block of cheese and shreaded it by hand because a) it's cheaper b) gave me a little arm workout! I had to cut this recipe down to serve two (basically 1/2 a cup of everything instead of 2 cups). Still worked out well and you can change this recipe up to fit your preferences. You can change the kind of cheeses, use one or many different cheeses, use bacon instead on pancetta, etc. A quick tip, I put the pancetta it some paper towels to soak up the grease, rolled up the paper towel and smushed it-- makes the pancetta crumble easier. The recipe also says to use a panini maker to grill the sandwiches but you can just use a pan (like you do with regular grilled cheese). I used my george foreman grill (love it!). If you have a george foreman grill and want to use it with this recipe be careful because they cook really fast-- less than two minutes-- with the grilled already heated.

Something new: I had never heard of pancetta before this year-- I'm also excited to be learning about new food in this project! Pancetta taste almost exactly like bacon and has the same texture (both come from a pig). Even though I've never heard of it before, you can find pancetta at most grocery stores --I've found it with the deli meats. Of course it's good but the down side is it's a little pricey (probably because it's not used much over here-- it's used in Europe). Even Giada's Aunt said she uses bacon over here instead of pancetta because bacon is more avaliable.

Health Thoughts: This recipe calls for a whole stick of butter and vegetable oil which is a lot of fat. I used a just tablespoon of butter the first time I cooked this dish to make sure the mixture would spread, which it did. I tried it the second time just using a bit more than a tablespoon of vegetable oil and no butter and the recipe still worked out well! If you are looking to save some calories I would nix the butter!

Enjoy! I sure did!

Here's the pretty princess fiona sandwich!:

Venetian Rolled Pizza

So I decided to make this dish as a snack to bring to my brother and his helpers on his moving day! Venetian Rolled Pizza-- I saw Giada make this and of course it looked amazing! Here is the recipe-- http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/venetian-rolled-pizza-recipe/index.html

This recipe is really simple and surprisingly makes for a hearty snack (a meal would work too). This is what it looked like before being rolled (I was a little apprehensive that the dough would break as I rolled it). It looks good like that-- right?! I bought pizza dough to save time. I usually like to make the dough myself because it makes me feel like I'm Italian and know how to make pizza like I know how to walk! It's really fun-- a pizza party where everyone has their own dough and creates whatever kind of pizza they like would be surprisingly fun too. I had to battle with the whole food's dough I bought because it was not spreading easily. As soon as I would spread it, it would come back to the form it was before. I've taken a cooking class on pizza before so it might have needed to "rest" a bit. Therefore I left it alone for 15 minutes, came back, and started to have no more sympathy for it. I threw it around and stretched it with my hands (thanks for nothing, rolling pin) and finally got it to a shape and thickness I was happy with. The dough was the hardest part. After that you just add the toppings and then roll!

I rolled it successfully-- probably thanks to the store bought dough. And baked it and here is the end result. It makes life easier to use a serrate knife to cut the roll.I heard everyone enjoyed it (I did-- oh yea, and there is something green in there too)! Hope you do too!

Welcome

My new years resolution this year was to cook at least once a week. Honestly, I don't know where this idea came from. I've always wanted to love cooking.... you know? I was pretty good at cooking but never made anything really amazing and unique. And cooking always took at least an afternoon. It was so time consuming! And I'm a really picky eater, can't do weird textures or strong spices. Seriously, I'm picky. Family would make me separate dishes from everyone else because I'm so difficult. Therefore, again, don't really why I wanted to do this....but I just dove right in. Started out small-- cooking once a week, making good but not spectacular dishes. Then everything changed. I blame the food network. I fell in LOVE. Yes, you guessed it....with food (well, that was already a done deal) and cooking!!!! I love to cook now! In less than two months I have been converted! I've even started growing herbs! HERBS!!! I'm surprising myself. I think I can even say with some confidence that everyone who knows me, or has ever tried to make me eat shrimp, is shocked as well. So my best friend suggested I start a blog about my cooking. (Yes, she is in shock too.) Which is perfect because I am wayyy too proud of everything I make-- and where is one of the best places to brag???? The internet of course! (Thank you, facebook) So enjoy viewing this picker eater cook some awesome dishes (yes- vegetables are included!)