Strawberry Pretzel Salad

I need to start this off by saying that I don't understand why this is considered a "salad". It doesn't have any of the properties of a salad. It is 100% dessert.

The basis of this recipe is from one on allrecipes.com. One of the reviewers rated it as one star because it was so unhealthy. For serious? She even admits in the review that it's delicious! I need to point out that the original version of this about the same health level as many other desserts that involve a buttery crust with cheesy filling. Cheesecake comes to mind. Well, my version is for her. I used low fat cream cheese, fat free cool whip, and sugar free jello. I wouldn't say that it's healthy, but it has fewer calories than the original recipe.

Bacon Asparagus Mini Quiche

Today is mother's day, so I want to start by saying that while everyone out there is filling up my facebook feed with how their moms are the best, they are all incorrect. Because my mom is.
Anyway, on to food! Today I made mini-quiche which are one of the classiest hors d'oeuvres in existence. The best part of quiche in general is that it tastes good both warm and at room temperature, so it's something that can be made in advance and sit out without serious consequences to flavor. They also freeze extremely well for future use, and the kind that you can buy in the freezer section at the grocery store are generally pretty decent.

Moscow Mule

Warm weather has come to Delaware and with it, a desire to drink in the sunshine. One of my current favorite drinks is the Moscow Mule. It's light and refreshing and not too sweet (which is something I take issue with in many mixed beverages). If you're a fan of delicious lime flavor, you'll enjoy this drink!

Bulgogi Beef

BULGOGI BEEF!
I always feel like I have to yell bulgogi beef. It's almost as fun to say as it is delicious. Sweet, salty, beefy and amazing. If you've ever been to a Korean Barbecue, I hope you tried it. If you haven't, it's time to find one near you. Korean food is delicious. Try everything on the menu, especially if you get to cook it on a grill at your table.

Anyway, I can't always go out for Korean food, but with the magic of making my own bulgogi beef, I can get a darn good approximation at home.

Bulgogi beef is made with some special Asian pear that is not regularly available in the states. Some recipes replace it with sugar, but it's really not the same. It also doesn't have the acidic properties of juice. I make mine with apple and pear and I think that it gives a similar flavor. Also natural sugar hooray!

Mexican Chorizo Monkey Bread

I love the color the avocado gives this!

Thanks to the folks on pinterest, I've recently been exposed to images of monkey bread. For those of you who have not been sucked into the addictive world of pinterest, let me explain.

Traditional monkey bread can be described as a cinnamon roll cake. Little balls of dough are covered in cinnamon sugar and baked inside of a loaf pan, cake pan, or bundt pan. When it comes out, the little balls stick together, but can be pulled apart easily instead of slicing. I've never eaten traditional monkey bread, but it sounds pretty delicious.

The variety that I've seen on pinterest most often is pizza monkey bread. In this incarnation, the dough balls are stuffed with mozzarella and pepperoni and then dipped in marinara sauce. This seemed like an excellent ideas, but  I didn't have pepperoni and I did have some pretty tasty Mexican ingredients. My variation is a little bit different, stuffed with Mexican chorizo, corn, onion, tomato, cream cheese, avocado, and mozzarella. I made some cumin sour cream to dip it in.

Roasted Garlic White Bean Dip with Homemade Pita Chips

so much yum!

When I was little, I remember my parents having people over for dinner, drinks, maybe some bridge. I know I mention my mom a lot here, and I feel like I should mention my dad. He would make these pita chips for parties that were just delicious.

These weren't made for me you understand, they were made for guests. So when I was given one, hot from the oven or the next morning when they'd loss a bit of their crispiness, it was a treat. I'm honestly not sure what my parents served with these. I think it might have been hummus... I didn't really care about that. 

Chocolate Coconut Marshmallow Cookies

gooey marshmallows

Some days, you just want a cookie. Today was like that for me. It started when the grocery store had fresh baked cookies and the entire store smelled amazing. It was hard, but I resisted buying a bag while I was there.

I got home and did some work around the house (I really need to do one load of laundry every week instead of four loads of laundry once a month...). But as we got into evening, I still REALLY wanted a cookie. I went upstairs to look in my baking supplies and see what I had. It wasn't awesome. Not enough chocolate chips for chocolate chip cookies, not enough peanut butter for peanut butter cookies, no raisins or oats for oatmeal raisin. I had less than a quarter cup of chocolate chips, part of a bag of shredded coconut and a quarter bag of stale mini marshmallows.