main dishes – Page 3 – Cremona's Kitchen

Stuffed Buffalo Chicken Breasts

December 4, 2012 No Comments

Christmas time is here! Wow, that was fast. Wasn’t I just picking out costumes for Halloween and picking fresh veggies from our garden? Gah, life has a way of catching up with me! So I spent the past weekend going to Kohl’s and stocking up on new Christmas decorations. My living room, kitchen, and tv room are slowly becoming decked with jiggle bells and mistletoe.

And in that spirit of giving, my husband bought me a new purse, wallet, and clutch for winter. I’m a big believer in having a summer purse, a fall purse, a spring purse, and a winter purse. I blame my mother. Her purses were always inspired by the weather.

I wanted to show my gratitude by making something special for Matt. Matt loves wings. Whenever I find a recipe that has some spin on buffalo wings, I bookmark it. Of course, I also have a wing tooth–I love the salty, spicy flavor of a good batch of wings. Unfortunately, so do my thighs. Hence, looking for the same tasty flavors minus the hefty calories. This stuffed chicken is exactly that! A low-calorie option to deep fried wings.

desserts, main dishes, recipes, vegetarian

Berry Baked Oatmeal Bites

October 23, 2012 1 Comment

Breakfast has always been my favorite meal. Every morning, I wake up with my stomach grumbling and really can’t get much accomplished without having a good breakfast. And one of the many things I love about the law firm I work at is Friday breakfast. Every Friday, someone brings in breakfast for the entire office. Last week it was my turn. I used it as an opportunity to try a new recipe. I got good feedback from everyone and will definitely be making this again!

One fun thing about this recipe is you can switch up the ingredients. Toss in raspberries, blueberries, apples, strawberries. Whichever you prefer or whatever you have on hand. Also this recipe can easily be made with or without chocolate chips. So play around with this recipe and make it your own.

I’ve also joined the world of smartphones. Which means I’ve been talking pictures of everything! I was at a restaurant with a great friend last weekend and had to take a picture of this amazing soup–a tomato pesto. New goal: figure out how to recreate my own tomato pesto soup. Hopefully soon I’ll be posting my first recreation recipe!

main dishes, vegetarian

Caprese Pizza

October 23, 2012 2 Comments

I PASSED THE BAR!! You have no idea how good it feels to write that. After months of waiting, worrying, and some more waiting, I got the coveted letter from the Bar of Law Examiners Friday morning at 11:00 and screamed in excitement. So loud that one of my co-workers came into my office to see if I was ok. Ha. I was shaking with excitement for a good hour. The final hurdle standing in the way of my legal career has finally been conquered.

Now that I’ve lawyered the bar exam, my next feat will be working with yeast. I have a long list of recipes I want to try that work with active yeast that I have putting on the back burner to try “someday.”

Well, that someday wasn’t today. (hey, I passed the bar. I figured I earned myself a break) But next week I am going to overcome my fear of yeast and give it a good college try. This pizza was so delicious that it will probably be one of my first recipes I’ll make using yeast. Figure even if I fumble a bit, the powerful basil and mozzarella flavors will overpower any mistake I may make.

chicken, main dishes, recipes

Sesame Encrusted Baked Chicken

October 9, 2012 No Comments

I finally have joined the rest of the world–I own a smart phone! After years of free phones that can hardly text, my phone is fully functional, complete with GPS and Words with Friends. But the best part of having a smartphone is the camera! For the past couple of years, I’ve had to bug Matt for his phone whenever the urge for a photoshoot struck. Now I can whip out my own phone without the hassle of convincing Matt to fork over his.

My last recipe required so much prep work and cooking time. This recipe is much more worker-friendly. The ingredients are all ones that you can normally find in your cupboard. It was a simple, yummy meal that I recommend on those busy nights.

main dishes, recipes, vegetarian

Eggplant Parmigiana

September 10, 2012 No Comments

Fall is finally here!! It is my favorite season–cool, crisp weather, sweaters, scarves, boots, pumpkin lattes. Usually fall marks new beginnings for me since a new year of school starts–but this year is the first year in 20 years that I didn’t start school. Luckily, the great feeling of a fresh start didn’t fade this fall because I started my first, real job as a lawyer a couple weeks ago. Still, it’s odd not working on homework or spending time on OneNote.

Fall also means more heartier meals. Something to stick to your ribs. And this makes me think of eggplants. I always avoid recipes that require deep frying so making eggplant parmesan has never been something on my to-do list. Thank God I found this recipe! I still get to enjoy eggplant parmesan without all the deep fried hassle and high calories.

main dishes, recipes, vegetarian

Layered Feta and Eggplant Zucchini Dish

September 9, 2012 No Comments

So many new things have been happening in my house. I got a job!! Only after a couple months after graduating law school, I got a position as an associate attorney at a law firm that specializes in banking and business law. I started last week and so far I am loving it! The firm has been so welcoming. It feels like I hit the jackpot.

And the day after starting work, Matt and I decided it was time to paint our kitchen cabinets. We’ve only had our house for a little over a year, and it definitely falls under the category of a “fixer-uper.” The kitchen had cheap, dark, wood cabinets. They added nothing to our kitchen. My mother-in-law suggested we paint them, and it was time for us to take her advice.

Still putting last minute touches on the newly, painted cabinets. So no “after” picture yet. With the new job and a diy project turning my kitchen upside down, cooking fell to the back burner. But after a week hiatus, it was time for a new recipe.

main dishes, pasta, pork, recipes

Pizza Pasta Bake

August 15, 2012 5 Comments

This weekend my in-laws came to visit. It’s a 6 hour drive from their place to ours so they usually do not get in until around 9 or 10. The visit always starts out with my father-in-law suggesting we get pizza. But because it’s around 9, all the places around us only do delivery and Matt and him debate whether delivery will take too long. And after discussing it for 20 minutes, a delivered pizza would likely already be on its way. So this time I decided to skip the whole first act and make something. This pizza bake was a huge hit. My father-in-law got his pizza fix, and Matt got his bake fix.

main dishes, recipes, vegetarian

Cheesy Zucchini Bake

July 31, 2012 No Comments

While I was studying for the bar, I wanted fast and easy homemade meals. Our freezer was full of ground turkey so I decided to cook it up, mix it together with pasta, cheese, and herbs and turn it into a bake. Matt feel in love with the meal, begging me to remake it. So after making various versions of the pasta bake, I decided it was time for a vegetarian bake.

Our fridge is becoming increasingly more full of fresh veggies from our garden every day so I cut up our multi-colored zucchinis, some basil, green onions, and jalapenos, mix them with some cheese, spinach, and dried herbs. and the cheesy zucchini bake was born!

isn’t this tomato cool! it’s a striped tomato.

chicken, main dishes, recipes, slow cooker

Crock Pot Chicken Cacciatore

July 8, 2012 1 Comment

The dreaded bar exam is lurking around the corner. In 16 days, I’ll be sitting down in a crowded, stuffy classroom, surrounded by over-stressed, nerve-ridden students waiting to take a two day-12 hour exam that will decide whether or not we are fit to practice law in Minnesota. Sounds great huh? Bring on the fun!

While I wait in anticipation of this joyous event, I have been cramming every single piece of law I can into my over-sized head. It’s gotten to the point that when I have conversations, they consist of me telling someone about a certain area of law. “Hey! So you’re never gonna believe this crazy piece of information! You can use prior inconsistent statements to impeach a witness. AND it can come in as substantive evidence.” Yeah, I know. Crazy. But it’s true!!

So since I can only speak in legal jargon, I’ve decided to stick to crock pot recipes for the next two weeks. Anything that takes more than 20 minutes to cook makes me feel guilty for reading something that isn’t cluttered with italic, Latin phrases. My poor summer fun reading list has been set aside (sorry Jessi Witkins!) And this recipe only calls for ingredients that most people have on hand at all times. No need for a grocery run.

The heat index in Minneapolis has started to decline (we live in house without air conditioning. the last couple days were less than pleasant) so using the crock pot isn’t completely unreasonable. Plus, after a full day of studying, a warm meal sure feels great! And hell, who doesn’t love chicky catch with some long ass rice (much love to my boy Tom Haverford).

main dishes, recipes, vegetarian

Greek Avocado Quinoa

July 4, 2012 3 Comments

I bought quinoa almost a two years ago. I tried to make it and completely failed. Either I cooked it too long, not long enough, or I did it right and couldn’t even recognize it. Either way, I gave up. Put the bag in my cupboard and forgot that I even had it at all. Until earlier this month. People kept pinning all these recipes with quinoa as the staple. It was time to bring my cupboard quinoa out of retirement and try to make something. So I picked some herbs from my garden, threw all the veggies we had in the crisper together, and tossed a dressing. It was delicious. Now I can see what all the fuss was about.