Cheese Ball

Happy Valentine's Day! Jason and I celebrated this past weekend with dinner at Barrington's (my favorite) Friday night and we spent Saturday together looking for furniture and cooking for each other. Today I spent the day with my other love.

Last week it was my turn to host wine book club so after flipping through some of Phyllis's recipes I came across this cheese ball.This is a recipe that Jason's mom acquired from her best friend and Jason's godmother, Delores.  I was surprised by how easy this was to make and unlike other cheese ball recipes that I have seen before this one only calls for one type of cheese. We had lunch with Delores on Sunday and I told her that I made her cheese ball for my girlfriends and everyone loved it so I don't think she will mind me sharing it with you.

Cheese Ball
- 2 -8oz packages of cream cheese (I used the reduced fat)
- 1 -8oz. can crushed pineapple- drained
- 1/2 cup chopped green peppers
- 2 Tablespoons onion
- Lowery's seasoning salt (About a Teaspoon but you can use as much or as little as you like)
- 1 Cup of chopped nuts

Mix all of the ingredients together except for the nuts. Roll in a ball and refrigerate. Before serving coat the outside with chopped nuts
**I made the cheese ball a day ahead then wrapped it in saran wrap to keep in the fridge.

Chef's in Training

Occasionally Jason and I will get the urge to experiment in the kitchen using ingredients that we already have on hand. Saturday night was one of those nights. While we were out running errands we stopped by Reid's to grab some meat to go along with our creations. Of course I could not walk in without looking around first so after grabbing this amazing spread and tasting some wine we decided on a fillet and two fish kabobs for Jason to put on the grill. I decided that I would tackle the sides while Jason took care of the meat and a dessert.

I put together a salad while brainstorming the ingredients for the other side. This is where the creativity came in for my part of the meal. I put on a pot of water to boil some whole wheat Gnocchi then added the following ingredients into the food processor to make a sauce to put over top.

I am going to make some minor adjustments to this recipe before I share it but we were both very pleased with the way it turned out. I have a feeling this is only the beginning of this sauce in the Key house.

Once Jason put together a marinade for the steak he got started on the dessert. He decided to make a parfait once he began gathering his ingredients. We received a gift basket for Christmas that included these cookies

so he grabbed a few of those along with some Oreos and put them in the food processor (separately). Once those were crushed he started laying the layers for the parfait. Starting from the bottom up he put
- Oreo cookie crumbs
- Vanilla Greek Yogurt
- Blueberry's
- Kaneel Sterren cookie crumbs
- Strawberry's
- Vanilla Greek Yogurt
- Toasted Coconut

Once the meat came off of the grill dinner was served.

Before serving the dessert Jason melted together Nutella and the Biscoff Spread to drizzle on top of the Parfait

Check out that yumminess on top :)

Not only is this a fun and inexpensive date night but its also the perfect way to clean out the pantry and refrigerator. 

Moussaka

Moussaka is a classic Greek dish that consist of layers of eggplant, ground meat (usually lamb) in a tomato sauce and topped with a creamy white sauce. I found this recipe in a magazine and immediately tore it out,  not because I was familiar with this famous Greek casserole, but because of the generous amount of vegetables that it called for. If you are familiar with the traditional taste of Moussaka then I must warn you that this recipe will be a bit different. Since we had never tasted the traditional Moussaka before Jason decided to order it while visiting London and we found that it had a sweeter taste. But trust me, this recipe is still very good AND the ingredients used reduces the calories by more than half compared to the real thing by tripling the amount of veggies and using less of a lower fat meat. For the white sauce that goes on top use low-fat cottage cheese for the extra protein.

Click the link above for the recipe. I used ground chicken instead of lean ground beef and have also tried it using ground turkey. If you can't find the gruyere cheese you can use swiss cheese instead.

Trip to California- Lake Tahoe Recap

We left the wine country Tuesday afternoon and headed to Squaw Valley in Lake Tahoe to do some skiing for a few days. We stayed at the Village at Squaw Valley, where we were able to spend the rest of our vacation relaxing. Before checking in to our condo we stopped by the store to load up on groceries for the rest of the week. After a full day of skiing we all agreed that it would be nice to make dinner in and just relax in the condo, which is exactly what we did.

The perfect ending to a wonderful vacation.





Trip to California- Sonoma recap Part 2

Monday was a fun filled day of visiting different wineries and participating in lots of tastings. We had appointments at Pride, Rombauer, and Gloria Ferrer and had just enough time for another stop at Cuvaison (which none of us had ever heard of but loved) before heading back to the Inn.

We had dinner reservations at  The Girl and The Fig, which was highly recommended by several people. We ordered the mussels and a cheese plate to share among the four of us.

For my entree I ordered the Seared Striped Bass which of course was delicious.

(I didn't realize it at the time but up to this point in our trip I had ordered fish every night. :) )We were all completely exhausted once dinner was over so we headed back to the Inn to crash in the bed. After we stopped to take this picture.

  

Before leaving for Tahoe on Tuesday we stopped by two more wineries on the way out (as if we had not tasted enough wine already:)). We had some time to spare before our wine and cheese pairing at Artesa so we stopped into Domain Carneros, which was located right across the road. I didn't realize when I ordered the sparkling wine tasting that it included 3 full glasses. (oops)
   

If you have any plans to visit the wine country I highly recommend going to Artesa and doing the Vino con Queso tasting. During this experience we were able to pair some of the limited release and reserve wines with artisan cheeses. Our guide was very helpful and I learned a lot about preparing a cheese plate based on certain wines. Not only did Jason and I enjoy this experience but we also loved the wine so much that we are now members of their wine club. What can I say they stole my heart when I walked into the room and saw this...

Trip to California- Sonoma recap Part 1

We left for Sonoma Sunday morning in time to grab lunch before our wine tasting at Gundlach Bundschu. I fell in love with Sonoma the moment we arrived and I could not wait to begin exploring the wine country. We had lunch at the Sunflower Caffe, located in downtown Sonoma, where we were able to eat lunch in the outdoor garden.

We had a barrel tasting scheduled at Gundlach Bundschu so once lunch was over we headed that way. During the barrel tasting we were able to taste developing wines straight from the barrels to get an idea of how the wine making team selects and uses the barrels. We were able to taste the difference between a French Oak barrel and an American Oak barrel that contained the same kind of grape and it was very cool to see how different they were.  (I personally liked the French barrel the best).

After the tasting Jennifer and Ian headed back to San Francisco as we made our way back into downtown Sonoma to check into the Inn we were staying at. We arrived just in time for happy hour so we grabbed some cheese and crackers and a glass of wine and sat by the fire. It was bliss.

Once we were able to peel ourselves away from the fire we stopped in here for another happy hour.       

Oysters baked with breadcrumbs, Parmesan, spinach and pancetta

            

We ate dinner at an Italian restaurant that was recommended by the Inn before crashing into bed for some much needed sleep.

Trip to California- San Francisco Recap

Now that we are home from our trip and my computer is back up and running (cross your fingers that it stays that way)  I am ready to start blogging again. We had an amazing time on our trip but it feels good to be home and back to a normal routine. During our trip we tried a lot of new food and received several recipe ideas from some of the places we visited, which I hope to be able to share at some point. We arrived in San Francisco on Friday just in time for a late dinner. Jennifer and Ian wanted to take us to Park Tavern, a new restaurant they had heard great things about. It is located in the historic North Beach neighborhood and even with a 9:30 dinner reservation the place was still packed out. We ordered several of the appetizers for the group to share then Jason and I split the grilled Sea Scallops to split as our entree. The appetizers were by far my favorite part and I could have made a meal off of the Deviled Eggs alone. 

We spent Saturday touring the city. We walked along the bay and stopped at the farmers market before going to brunch at The Plant, which features 100% organic and local ingredients . All I can say is holy yum. I ordered the special, which was an egg scramble (egg whites only) with chicken sausage, tomatoes, mushrooms, spinach and goat cheese. It came with a side of country potatoes, toast and fruit. We already plan to make this at home for one of our weekend breakfast.

We spent the rest of the afternoon hiking and seeing as much of the city as we possibly could. Thanks to Jennifer and Ian we had fantastic tour guides.

Jennifer, Allie, Martine

Saturday night we met up with some of Jennifer and Ian's friends for dinner and drinks at the Boxing Room.  Unlike Friday nights meal I could have done without the appetizers and just enjoyed my entree of Roasted Trout with Brussels Sprouts, Butternut Squash, and bacon. I typically don't order trout out so I wasn't sure how I was going to feel about it but since it was served with two of my most favorite vegetables I wanted to give it a try. I am so glad I did because it was amazing and possibly my favorite dinner all week.