About these ads

Archive for the ‘Lunch’ Category

 

Zucchini Ribbon Summer Salad

I love using holidays like the 4th of July as an excuse to obsess over creating new recipes to bring to events (or to eat alone in your apartment while listening to the faint sound of fireworks in the distance). For anyone in search of a quick and easy salad to bring to that 4th of July cookout next week… Look no further my friends. This salad is fast, easy, delicious, and comes out so damn pretty! Make the dressing in a small container so you can dress it right before it’s served and I promise it will be a hit.

I’m sure this won’t be the last Independence Day recipe you see from me this year. I’ve been Googling things like “Patriotic foods” and “red, white, and blue things I can eat” for at least a week. Stay tuned!

Zucchini Ribbon Summer Salad 2

ZUCCHINI RIBBON SUMMER SALAD

Ingredients

For the Salad:

1 summer squash

1 zucchini

1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved

2 cups arugula

1 1/2 cups of corn kernels

2-3 scallions, chopped

6-7 heaping tablespoons ricotta cheese

For the Dressing:

2 tablespoons Dijon mustard

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1/2 small shallot, grated or finely minced

dried basil, garlic powder, red pepper flakes, sea salt, pepper to taste

Directions

1. With a vegetable peeler, peel long strips of the summer squash and zucchini into a large bowl.

2. Add the rest of the vegetables for the salad and toss.

3. In a separate bowl, whisk together all of the ingredients for the dressing adjusting the seasonings as needed.

4. Keep refrigerated separately until ready to serve. When ready to serve, toss the dressing with the salad to evenly coat and transfer to serving dish and top with dollops of ricotta cheese as desired.

Zucchini Ribbon Summer Salad 1

About these ads

Read Full Post »

Pizza Dough Title

 Pizza with Sammy

Before I get into  my recent pizza dough making experience, I would first like to announce some very exciting news… according to my WordPress Statistics for this blog, www.pieceofcakeblogger.com has recently shown up in a Google Images search! But wait folks… That is not even the exciting part! The exciting part is what was searched for. Now, some of my initial predictions about what someone might have searched in order for my blog to appear in search results included: “How much weight will I gain from making homemade butter?” … “fleur di lis” …. “will making english muffins make me popular?” … but no, my friends. None of these were even close. None of these even compare to the real answer. The search that Piece of Cake came up in on this fateful day… was the following: “FUPA on a skinny person.” That’s right. Some (amazing) human out there Google Image searched “FUPA on a skinny person” and MY BLOG came up! Honestly, I don’t think I would be more excited right now if the search I came up in was “Best blog on planet earth.” Piece of Cake has arrived.

Ok, moving on. Pizza dough.

This past weekend I made homemade pizzas with my little brother. Sam is pretty much the most amazing human I know (in fact, it was probably him searching “FUPA on a skinny person” – I wouldn’t put it past him. That’s how awesome he is). He loves sports, girls, carbohydrates, and WWE and he is basically my hero. Sam also eats pizza for just around 90% of his meals so I trust his judgement on the matter.

This dough is quick to make (rises in about an hour), easy to work with, comes out soft and slightly chewy, and tastes great! Sammy approved, and he’s a tough crowd.

Pizza Pepperoni

HOMEMADE PIZZA DOUGH

Ingredients

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 packet yeast

1 teaspoon sugar

2 teaspoons salt

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 1/2 cups warm water

Directions

1.In a medium bowl mix the flours, sugar, yeast and salt together (you can use a stand mixer but we used our hands).

2. Drizzle in the water and 2 tablespoons of the oil and mix until the dough forms into a ball. If the dough is sticky, add additional flour.

3. Knead for a few minutes into a smooth, firm ball.

4. Rub olive oil all over the dough ball, place back into cleaned bowl and cover with a warm, damp cloth. Let rise for about an hour or until the ball doubles in size.

5. Once the dough has risen,  place on a lightly floured surface and divide it into equal pieces.

6. Roll out each piece into your desire shape for pizzas, leaving them about 1/4″ to 1/2″ thick and let rest for a few minutes.

7. Top with your favorite pizza ingredients and bake in a 450 degree oven on a baking sheet or pizza stone for 20 minutes or so until the crust of the dough is hard to the touch. (You might need to roll out and top the dough on a piece of tin foil for easy transfer into the oven if you don’t have a pizza paddle).

8. Remove from the oven and let rest for at least 5 minutes.

Sam kept it simple with straight-up pepperoni but we made another version with ricotta, asparagus, shrimp, red pepper flakes, and mozzarella which was amazing. Enjoy!

Pizza with Sam

Read Full Post »

I always hear people complain about how difficult it is to cook for one. I’m sorry but have you folks ever heard of something called leftovers? Or second dinner? Come on now. Needless to say, even when dining alone, I rarely cook in single portions. But alas, Avocado Egg Salad comes into the picture and a glorious single serving meal that takes all of 10 minutes to whip up is born. To me, avocados are amazing little green miracles. I wish it was ok to eat them like you would an apple but these things are pretty fattening… Did that stop me from combining them with eggs, mayo, and cheese? No. But still.

Avocado Egg Salad

AVOCADO EGG SALAD

Ingredients

1/4 large ripe avocado

2 hard-boiled eggs

1 1/2 tablespoons Dijon mustard

1 teaspoon whole milk (or 1 tablespoon mayo)

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 pepperoncini pepper, diced

2 tablespoons crumbled feta

1/8 cup chopped celery

3-4 dashes hot sauce (one of those things I buy in bulk because I love it so much)

garlic powder/salt/pepper to taste

Directions

1. Combine all of the above ingredients in a small mixing bowl.

2. Eat it! I put it in a wheat wrap with some salad mix (spinach, radicchio, and arugula) and cherry tomatoes but it would be awesome as a dip with tortilla or pita chips, on a salad… the possibilities are endless!

Avocado Egg Salad Wrap

Read Full Post »

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 56 other followers