One day I turned on the TV and accidentally caught an episode of Rachael Ray's talk show on which she happened to be making this roasted cauliflower au gratin. While cauliflower is definitely not our thing, I figured if there was a way to get Dustin to eat cauliflower (not hidden in mashed potatoes) it was covered in bechamel sauce. We made this...

Tuna salad has always been one of my favorite lunch items for as long as I can remember. I'd always eat canned tuna with Miracle Whip (since our house didn't stock mayonnaise when I was growing up) and a hard boiled egg. These days I try to cut back on mayonnaise consumption, so I decided to switch out an avocado for the mayonnaise to keep the...

Roasted potatoes and pesto are a match made in heaven, and the only thing this recipe requires is a little time. All you need to do is parboil some cubed potatoes for 8-9 minutes then place on a baking sheet covered in olive oil in a 425° oven for 45 minutes, and you have perfectly roasted poatatoes. And yes they are perfect. Dustin even...

I feel a little stalkerish talking about so many recipes from one particular blog, but this tomato-peach panzanella (topped with fresh mozzarella) and proscuitto-wrapped roasted sea bass from 20 Something Cupcakes sounded too delicious not to try. The Chilean sea bass simply cooked with a little butter, surrounded by the proscuitto is delicious...

If we decided to open a fancy-ish, non-traditional, Mexican restaurant, these green chile crab cakes with tomatillo salsa and a side of truffled black beans with caramelized onions would definitely be on the menu. This is another savory recipe from the Pastry Queen Cookbook, which I am officially in love with. This is another rather expensive...

I have been completely smitten with this recipe ever since I first saw it in the Pastry Queen cookbook. Savory cheesecake made with cream cheese and mascarpone, filled with Dungeness crab and shrimp? Sounds exactly like my kind of thing and another great excuse to use my springform pan. The first step is to make a saltine cracker crust by...

Tired of red meat and/or poultry burgers? We were too. These tilapia burgers are a great change from your standard burger and have a ton of flavor. They are similar to the fish burgers you can buy in the frozen section at Whole Foods, but are so much tastier since they are fresh. These are super, super simple to make, modified slightly from How...

We went on a mini spree of recipes with bechamel sauce. I made a large batch of (relatively healthy) bechamel and we used it for several days to make a variety of different recipes, the first of which was this Italian-inspired crab and ricotta manicotti. I stumbled upon this recipe and kept it as a tab on my browser for days. Scratch that weeks....

When I stumbled upon this recipe, it was interesting enough that I had to try it. Super healthy and bright for summer (which I may note that the Pacific Northwest did not get the memo that summer has officially started— what is up with 50 degree weather in June?), I have to admit it was not my favorite thing I've ever made. But then again, I'm...

Holy cow was the dish spicy! I really liked the idea of Italian and Mexican fusion from this shrimp fajita pasta we used as inspiration with our own extra spicy homemade enchilada sauce based off this recipe, but hyper spiced up with extra cumin, ancho chili powder, and adobo. We might have spiced our enchilada sauce a little too much. The...