Mark’s busy with work this week, so I’ve been whipping up my own concoctions that I would say are just about as awesome as his.

Beet and Feta Salad with Prosciutto …

Pickled beets meet goat cheese and the salty crispy yummyness that is prosciutto.

Mark decided that instead of pizza, that we’d do something a bit different and make calzones.

Holy lord look at those fillings … soooo yummy!

I don’t have a recipe per say, but I do have a small how-to.  Use whatever dough recipe and sauce recipe you want. Also, you can add as much or as little of the ingredients as you want. I’d be interested in any suggestions for additional ingredients.

1. Make pizza dough and separate into softball sized balls.
2. Roll out each ball to about 1/4 an inch thick.
3. Gather your fillings. We used mozzarella, onion, fresh spinach, cottage cheese, italian seasoning, pepperoni, italian sausage, tomato and tomato sauce.
4. Mix fillings together in a large bowl.
5. Scoop 1-1.5 c of your filling into the middle of the dough.
6. Fold in half. Fold the bottom edge over the top edge and crimp to seal.
7. Cut a couple slits in the top of the calzone.
8. Bake in a preheated 425° oven for 30-40 minutes, or until crust is golden and cheeses are melted.

Cornmeal Pancakes with Blueberry Maple Syrup

For pancakes

• 3/4 cup wheat flour
• 1/2 cup cornmeal
• 3 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg, ground
• 2 large eggs, separated and at room temp
• 1 cup skim milk, room temp
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Whisk flour, cornmeal, brown sugar, baking powder, salt, baking soda and nutmeg in a large bowl.
2. In another bowl, whisk egg yolks with buttermilk, milk, melted butter, and vanilla extract.
3. Combine the wet and dry ingredients to make a thick batter, be sure not to overmix.
4. Whip egg whites until they have soft peaks.
5. Fold the whipped egg whites into the batter.
6. Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium heat.
7. Lightly coat the surface with butter.
8. Pour about 1/4 cup of the batter into the skillet for each pancake.
9. Cook until bubbles break the surface of the pancakes and the undersides are golden brown.
10. Flip pancakes and cook for another minute or so on the other side. Be careful — these burn easily.
11. Keep cooked pancakes warn on baking sheet in the oven while you cook the rest.
12. Serve pancakes with warm blueberry syrup.

For blueberry syrup

• 1 cup blueberries, or mixed berries (I used half blueberries and half blackberries)
• 1/4 cup maple syrup
• 1/2 t cinnamon (or more if you love cinnamon!)

1. Toss the blueberries and maple syrup in a small saucepan.
2. Add cinnamon and cook over high heat until boiling and blueberries begin to pop, about 5 minutes.

Could he do it?

Was there really any question? This kid knows his stuff. He pulled through. And in a fancy way.

I’m not including a recipe this time because we’re going to refine it with all the changes we talked about during dinner, but it was still amazingly delicious. The list of ingredients included: lasagne noodles, tomatoes, mozzarella cheese, fontina cheese, basil, italian chicken sausage, garlic … I think that might have been it. Not sure what order. He made a sauce of some sort out of the cheeses and rolled the lasagne noodles around the sausage. I added the basil towards the end (I LOVE BASIL. Especially fresh basil).

My addition to dinner was the garlic toast. I actually used rye bread instead of my normal wheat. I will share a recipe for that (so you don’t walk away feeling cheated!)

Calee’s Garlic Toast

(recipe is per slice of bread — because I may or may not just make one piece occasionally)
1 slice bread (I like Sarah Lee 45 Calories and delightful)
1.5 T olive oil
italian spices
1/2 t minced garlic (or less if you’re into that)
2 T parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 400°.  Mix all ingredients except the bread.  Pour or spread onto the slice of bread. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until toasted.

Anyway, it’s another installment of Wonder-Bred Italian Boy ™ Cooks. Again — he came up with the idea and I executed.  It was my turn to cook since he made an awesome pizza a few days before and since he made an awesome brunch, which I will blog about tomorrow in my Sunday Brunch post.

I was making chicken fajitas and Mark came  up with the idea of adding a side of rice and “Mexi-fying” it.  I was pretty skeptical. I don’t like corn in things, but he was adamant about adding it.

So. I. Did.

It was awesome!

Without further ado, here’s the recipe.

Mark’s “Mexify-ed” Rice

1 15 oz can Rotel Tomatoes with chilies
1 15 oz can sweet corn
1 c brown rice
1/2 t cumin
1 t butter

In a medium-sized sauce pan, combine all the ingredients (do not drain tomatoes or corn). Stir, while bringing to a rolling boil over medium/high heat.  Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 45 minutes, or until rice has absorbed all of the liquid and is tender. Serve warm with cheese, salsa and sour cream, or as a side dish.

In case you’re curious, I may or may not have made dinner wearing my Ziggy Stardust t-shirt and my awesome custom-made Megadeth apron (the Dave Must-apron).

My boy likes to cook and I thought it’d be a cool feature to share his creations (with instructions) once or twice a month.

I shall call this segment: Wonder Bread Italian Boy Cooks.

For those of you who don’t get that, my boy is about as Italian as white bread. Wonder bread that is. He’s got the last name and the recipes. Not to mention he’s an amazing cook and comes up with crazy delicious meals on the fly.

So without further ado, this is installment #1 of Wonder Bread Italian Boy Cooks.

Sorry guys, I promise from now on I’ll have better photos. I did just buy a new digital camera! This was kind of an on-the-fly decision to add this feature, so the photo isn’t great, but it was YUMMY.

Everything from the Garden Pasta

Ingredients:

1 full chicken breast (both sides of the breast)
4 T olive oil (reserve 2 for the end)
Salt and Pepper to taste
2 lbs assorted vegetables — he used:
1 small yellow zucchini squash, sliced
1 small green zucchini, sliced
1 red pepper, julienned
1 green pepper, julienned
1 yellow pepper, julienned
1/2 red onion, sliced
1 small package mushrooms, whole
1/2 c red wine
2 14.5 oz cans diced tomatoes
italian seasoning to taste
Cooked whole wheat pasta

Directions:

Heat 2 T olive oil over medium heat in a large pan. Cut chicken into bite-sized pieces and add to oil. Season with salt and pepper. Cook through and remove from pan. Set aside.

Add veggies to pan. Saute while stirring until onions start to get glossy and see-through. Add half of the red wine. Keep stirring and sauteing for 15 more minutes or until veggies have cooked through.

Add the rest of the red wine, the additional 2 T olive oil, both cans of tomatoes and the chicken. Sprinkle with some Italian seasonings. Cook for 15 minutes more. Toss with the cooked pasta and serve with parmesan cheese.

I’m going to attempt to only eat out at local establishments — no chain restaurants — in February.  Can I do this?  I think I can.  I pretty much avoid chains for the most part anyway.  Sooo … here I go!

I should maybe attempt to blog about the different places I try, but we’ll see how that goes.

Read about my friend swearing off chain restaurants for a month.

I was really excited to go because I finally got to introduce my fabulous beau to all my friends. Granted, he’s met most of them before — just not in boyfriend context.  We’ve been good friends for years so our circles have overlapped already a bit anyway.

Anywho — I made a giant spinach/spring mix salad and an awesome Better than Robert Redford cake. (yes, robert redford — because of the mixed bag that reads my blog!)

It was a fun time. We had a lot of wine and a lot of good food. Lots of good conversation and fun times with friends!

Here’s a few photos from the event … I’m hoping I captured the crazy as well as the cuteness of all the adorable people there! (I can haz cute friends?!)

The official 25th birthday celebrations began a few weeks ago with Kelly’s celebration. For her birthday, we did cake and wine (MollyCake) at Molly’s place. Molly made an amazing raspberry lemon cake that was beautifully decorated.

Gorgeous!

Eloisa and I eating the leftover frosting. Yes. Leftover frosting. Amazing.

Kelly and Molly cutting the cake.

inside … YUM

me n shelly — tallest person in the room + shortest=epically cute.

AND the birthday celebration continued on Kelly’s b-day at Olde Main Brewery in Ames for dollar pint nights. Mmmm … Off Kilter.

ridiculously cute as usual.

Yay… Kelly, Maria and I. I <3 my girlies!

And now, for my b-day celebration!

On Saturday we went to the Appare Steakhouse in Des Moines for some sushi and steak (mostly sushi).  And then we went to the Blue Moon Dueling Piano Bar in West Des Moines.

Kelly, Feleecia, me and Maria at Appare

Me and my boys, Mark and Matt. Related: I am ridiculously short.

Molly and I (pseudo roomies!) — I’ve been hanging out/staying at her place some of this month. Molly is awesome!

Steph and Nathan — the cutest awesomest couple EVAR. Seriously. Look up “made for each other” in the dictionary and you see their picture (not that you can look up a phrase in the dictionary, but hey, you get my drift).

Annnnndddd… no night would be complete without making out with some inanimate object.

This was just at the sushi place.  The piano bar was far less interesting.  We got there and had nowhere to sit. So we ended up on some couches by the bathroom. Kelly and Danielle got a fish bowl, which ended up being given to a bachelorette party. BECAUSE because because … some girl was waiting in line for the bathroom (which was being occupied by a couple that was getting busy) and TOTALLY puked all over herself and the floor right by where we were. Although it was hilarious, it was also disgusting, so we promptly left.

More is to come for the Birthday Parade of Awesomeness ™.  Thursday we shall have cake and some awesome TV watching (the office, project runway, sunny).  For my birthday cake, I requested a Cake Wreck.  Molly and I have something reaallllly awesome in mind.

I finally took the plunge and tried to eat a banana a couple weeks ago for the first time in at least 10 years. When I was younger I couldn’t eat bananas because they made my stomach hurt — which is ironic because it’s one of the things doctors always tell you to eat when you can’t digest much else.

Anyway, after a dormant period without bananas, I’m totally crazy about all things banana! (well, not as much as my friend Niki I suppose).

My absolute favorite thing and new obsession is making frozen banana custard.  I found this “recipe” on Iowa Girl Eats’s blog.  This was actually what prompted me to try bananas again.  I have a huge ice cream obsession and a few weeks back had an issue with stress eating (ie. pints of ice cream) lead to an unhealthily quick weight gain. So, I thought, if I could replace the ice cream with something healthy (ie. frozen banana) then I would be set.

AND yay. It worked. Those 7 pounds gone in a flash (gained ‘em one week, lost ‘em the next). They say that bananas are bloat-fighters, and I must agree. Because I’m going to throw it out there and say that 5 of those 7 pounds I gained in a week HAD to be water weight. (right? right.)

Anyway, here is my cleverly disguised banana for the day:

I will say that the trick is to cut the naners into smaller pieces before freezing. Also, I’ve been doing mine in the blender and using the “ice crush” function to get it going. I add a little bit of soy milk and some vanilla to the mix to get things going. I’ve also thrown in some chocolate ovaltine for a chocolate version of my faux ice cream.

Another thing that’s awesome about the banana obsession (aside from the health benefits) is the fact that they’re way cheap. I can make 3 pints of frozen banana custard using 4-5 medium bananas.  That is roughly $1.50 for 3 pints. Compare that to the price of one pint of Ben and Jerry’s. Just try.

Hopefully I don’t get sick of bananas because so far they’ve been doing wonders for me and my pocket book!