Livin' the Dream in Lima

What's this? A recipe post??!?! Haha... we are currently on the beach and it is a rainy day, so I thought I'd have a little fun. I only have about 5123 recipes in my arsenal from the last several months that I'd love to write about. We'll start with BLT Pizza . My Business Man and I have decided that this summer is the summer of pizza. Homemade pizza night once a week, and we're going to try not to repeat anything. Here's what we've done so far (with links to recipes where applicable): Week #1: Margherita Pizza Week #2: Strawberry Bacon Balsamic Week #3: BLT (posted below!) Week #4: BBQ Chicken - simple bbq sauce topped with chicken, cheese, & onion Week #5: Pepperoni & Cheese  It's been fun to come up with something different each week... I thought BLT would be a unique twist on pizza. I love BLT's in general, so why wouldn't it be good on a pizza? I browsed online for some recipes, but most of them had a big slop of may...

I've got two favorite restaurants here in the Bean Town - Viva Maria   and  Thai Jasmine . Pizza/pasta and Thai noodle dishes... what can I say, I like carbs. Much to my demise, Viva Maria closed  a few weeks ago! They opened a small quick-service stand in the mall, and I have been told they are "searching for a new sit-down location." Either way, I was totally bummed. My absolute favorite dish to order at Viva Maria was the Dominic's White Pizza,  topped with fresh garlic, broccoli, spinach, tomatoes, ricotta, and mozzarella cheese. The best bite was the thick chewy crust with the sweet ricotta cheese. Man, I miss that pizza. Last week, I decided that I just couldn't live without the Dominic's White Pizza, so I re-created it myself. And while this pizza wasn't exactly  like Viva Maria's, it was pretty darn close! It definitely satisfied the craving.  Stolen from  my Instagram account... I need to bake this pizza in the daylight so I can tak...

Squash. I'm sure you've seen this a lot lately. Horrible lighting, delicious pizza. As a matter of fact, I've had one sitting on my counter since the end of September. Have I used it yet? Umm.... have you ever tried to cut into and peel a butternut squash? Not so much fun. Not the squash we ate. This guy's still out in the kitchen. However, at Sam's Club last Saturday, I found peeled & cubed butternut squash, all nice and neat in a little package. For just $3.98. So much easier. It looked like this. But didn't have a date from 2009 on it. Source So the squash still sits on my counter. But I did  actually cook the squash from Sam's. First, I roasted it with some garlic, salt, and pepper. It was delicious just like that. But then I made it even better - topped pizza dough with it. Along with bacon. And gouda. And caramelized red onion. Oh my.  Between my Business Man and I, there was one measly little piece left at the end of ...

So I've been feeling pretty domestic this weekend. Trying to be like the domestic queen, Martha.  It all started Friday night with some homemade pizza . Like really homemade - even the crust. In the past I've tried making homemade pizza, and it was always just so-so. The crust always seemed soggy. Well, I tried this method from Annie's Eats, and it makes the best, doughy, chewy, crispy pizza crust ever. The trick is placing the dough directly on the 500*F pizza stone, that way it starts cooking immediately. We topped it with a garlic-butter sauce, chicken, tomatoes, mozzarella, and fresh basil. Yum. I just got done eating the leftovers and they were just as tasty. The domesticity continued with some crafty time . Crafts + Lifetime Movie Channel = one rockin' Saturday night. I might have even enjoyed a few Diet Dews. (Shhh... don't tell.) All ready to go.  I saw an autumn wreath on Pinterest , and immediately fell in love. I just had to make it....

If you've been around for any amount of time at all, you've probably noticed I love pizza . Thin-crust pizza, deep dish pizza, flat bread pizza, pizza bread. You name it, I'll eat it. Lately, we've been making a lot of pizza at home. Okay, we always make a lot of pizza at home. Especially now that I discovered you can buy blobs of frozen pizza dough at Meijer for about a dollar. Or the pre-baked ones for just a bit more.  I've been trying to get more adventurous with toppings - forgoing the usual tomato sauce for garlic sauce, adding spinach or sun-dried tomatoes, different cheeses. This pizza originated when I was talking to a good friend on the phone, and she was telling me all about this caramelized onion & fig pizza. I've never even had figs before, and it sounded delicious. Too bad nobody here in the Bean Town eats figs either, because I couldn't find them anywhere. Onto plan B. I saw a recipe for Peach & Gorgonzola Pizza and d...

The last few days have been a bit crazy, to say the least. Sunday was our big Moving Day , and on Monday I went to Cedar Point with my calculus class all day, including driving home through a tornado warning. Our bus driver was a beast and got us all back safely. We're finally getting a bit settled into our new house, and by a 'bit settled', I mean that the kitchen is halfway organized. That's all that matters, right? This was 'mid-move'. It looks much better now. But I'm not showing a pic until it's perfect! One thing that I'm really excited about is our new fridge. The house didn't come with one, so I got to pick out my very own! It was a little tricky, because our space is only 31" wide, so there weren't a lot of options. This is what we ended up with: Just kidding. We actually ordered a side-by-side with a bottom-drawer freezer, but it won't be here until after Memorial Day. The great people at Bindel's Appli...