Fried Pickles with tangy ranch dipping sauce

Food porn at it's finest....

I still can't get over how delicious these are.. Adapted from Copykat recipes

Ingredients:
-1 jar dill pickle chips
-2 cups whole wheat flour
-1 cup all purpose flour
-2 teaspoons salt
-1 teaspoon paprika
-dash of cayenne pepper
-2 cups buttermilk
- 8 cups Vegetable oil for frying

For dipping sauce
-Louisiana Hot Sauce
-Ranch dressing 

Directions:

-Heat 8 cups of vegetable oil into a large pot

-Drain dill pickles in a colander and then place into a medium sized bowl with the 2 cups of buttermilk. 

-Place flours, salt, paprika, and cayenne pepper into a bowl and mix well

-Place half of the mixture into a plastic bag, and other half into another plastic bag

-Use slotted spoon and place half of the buttermilk coated pickles into bag containing the flour mixture. -Shake off excess flour, and place battered pickles into hot grease (Be careful not to place too many pickles into the hot grease or the pickles will be soggy). 

-Fry pickle slices until golden brown. 

-Place on plate covered with a paper towel

-Continue with other half of pickle mixture. 

For dipping sauce:

-Combine equal parts ranch dressing and Louisiana Hot Sauce

Americanized summer rolls

Shout out to Alexa for introducing me to this recipe 3 years ago...

Americanized summer rolls! ((Almost)) All-American ingredients encased in these delicious summer roll wrappers.

Ingredients:

-Summer roll wrappers (Also called spring roll wrappers, and NOT to be confused with egg roll wrappers).  I used these , nowadays they are so common that you can get them at almost any grocery store, even in some Targets!
- Thai rice noodles.  Once again, you can buy these at the grocery store.
-Raw spinach
-Natural creamy peanut butter
-Sriracha hot sauce , also found at your local grocery store haha
- OPTIONAL (but highly recommended) Avocado, sliced.

Directions:

-Cook rice noodles according to instructions on the back of the box and drain.  Set aside.
-Create assembly line with summer roll wrappers, then spinach, then bowl of drained rice noodles, optional pealed and sliced avocado, then peanut butter, then hot sauce.
-Place warm water in a shallow long and wide bowl, then place summer roll wrapper into water and press intermittently into water until it's texture becomes flexible and until pattern on summer roll wrapper disappears.
-Use fork, spoon, or spatchula to get summer roll out, and then place roll on plate.
-Take a few spinach leaves and place them on the summer roll wrapper (optional: use a rolling pin or other round surface to flatten the spinach leaves onto the summer roll wrapper).
-Use fork to place noodles on top of the spinach leaves (always make sure that you leave enough space at the end of the summer roll wrapper to roll it up).
-Place optional avocado slices on top of noodles.
-Roll the entire mixture in the summer roll in the same way that you would create a sandwich wrap.
-Once you have rolled the mixture, place peanut butter on top of the roll.
-place a few drops of Sriracha sauce on top of the peanut butter (depending on how spicy you want it to be).  Mix sriracha sauce with peanut butter.
-Then, wet another summer roll in the same way mentioned above, and wrap the roll around the first roll with the peanut butter and sriracha on top.
-These are surprisingly delicious!

Tomato Basil Mozarella Capese. 2 ways. With a twist!

Tomato basil mozzarella caprese!

I had been crazing this forever and decided that it was time to make it myself! The twist is fig balsamic vinegar instead of normal.. it gives it just a faint sweet taste of fig.. so delicious!

Ingredients (The following ingredient amounts are enough to make the dishes above):

-3 vine ripened tomatoes (unrefrigerated)
-FRESH basil.. I used some from a basil plant
-Fresh mozzarella cheese, the small balls in brine are preferred, they make all the difference! I used the marinated mozzarella balls from trader joes.
-good quality extra virgin olive oil (I used Pompeian extra virgin olive oil), once again, it makes the difference between good and EXTRAORDINARY! ;P
-Fig balsamic vinegar
-salt and pepper to taste

*I don't put measurements next to the ingredients because it really just depends on taste.. add as much as you want! Just remember: you can add stuff in, but you CAN'T take it out!

Instructions:
For the salad:
-Chop the tomatoes into bit sized pieces or smaller
-cut the mozzarella balls into fourths
-chop the basil into small pieces
-drizzle with olive oil and fig balsamic vinegar
-sprinkle with salt and pepper

for the whole tomatoes:
-Slice tomatoes diagonally into pieces with the consistency of your choice
-LIGHTLY sprinkle salt and pepper over the tomatoes
-Place 1 basil leaf over each tomato slice
-flatten the mozzarella balls with the bottom of a spoon, and place on top of the basil leaves
-sprinkle with extra virgin olive oil and fig balsamic vinegar

-I did this in about 10 minutes without any other instructions, and ate immediately! 

Buffalo Chicken Dip

The most addicting dip that I've ever tasted... after many recipes and tweaks, this is the best!

Buffalo Blue Cheese Chicken Dip

And yes, I know that my camera phone does not do it justice! Onto the recipe:

-A deep baking dish that is oven safe
-2 cooked pieces of chicken (More or less depending on how much you like chicken).  Many say boneless skinless chicken breasts are the best.  However, I like to cook two chicken drumsticks with the skin on.  I peel the skin off once the chicken has finished cooking.  This way, the chicken will stay juicy from being on the bone, and have nice flavor from the skin.
-12 oz cream cheese (this is a base, once again you can use more or less, but this is what worked for me).
-1/4 cup blue cheese salad dressing (more or less depending on how much you like blue cheese, but this is a good amount to start out with... Remember, you can put more blue cheese in, but it is much harder to take it out!)
-1/4 cup ranch salad dressing (depending on how much you like ranch dressing, you can also substitute this for the blue cheese dressing, and vice versa).
-1/4 cup blue cheese crumbles (cheddar cheese works too.. and I put in much more than 1/4 cup because I love blue cheese)
-Franks Red Hot Buffalo Wing sauce, as much as you want! Just pour and taste like a true chef ;P
-Fritos and celery for dipping.

-Optional:
-Grated cheddar cheese and panko bread crumbs to make a nice and crispy topping for the dip.

Directions:
-Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
-Soften the cream cheese
-Shred the chicken
-mix everything together in a deep, oven safe baking dish
-Sprinkle optional cheddar cheese and bread crumbs over the mixture
-Taste and make any adjustments, I added more hot sauce and blue cheese!
-Bake for 20-30 minutes (every oven is different)!

I'm baaaaack

A lot has happened since I last updated... I have moved to Pittsburgh, finished my first semester of grad school (just 3 more to go!), pulled various all-nighters (by choice and by circumstance) and had time to try out lots of different recipes and restaurants, among other things! But I'll leave it at that..

Since it's been so long.. I'm just going to post a bunch of pictures, so here we go!

The first picture features my favorite thanksgiving food EVER.. Homemade crescent rolls. This past thanksgiving was the first time that I made them all by myself... I will have to post the recipe at a later time because it is at my parents' house.

 Taking a break from the food theme.. I got these wonderful Blank cards from the Warhol Museum... Free admission with a Pitt ID! The Pitt ID is like a VIP pass.. free bus access, free museums, etc... my only complaint is that bars aren't included.  Pittsburgh is crazy expensive! So its the LEAST that they can do! ;P

Going back to food (how can I resist).  This is one of my favorite pasta recipes.  It is super easy to make.  All you need is pasta, olive oil, lemon juice, basil, and feta cheese.  Like a true chef, you don't need to measure the ingredients.  Just keep tasting and adding until it tastes good!  I can't even remember how many times I've made this.

Yummmmmy!

My birthday just passed recently (The Big 2-5!) and my friend Christina painted this beautiful picture for me.  She is extremely talented.  You should check her out! Seriously, I am so jealous of her artistic abilities...   http://www.etsy.com/people/waterforhearts?ref=si_pr

And a Christmas gift from my parents.. I couldn't help it, I had to post this.  Michael Kors! <3

A recent obsession... nail polish.. ever since I saw a friends collection last weekend, I just went crazy.  This is total bling bling.  It's Milani Jewel FX GEMS.

Today after sitting through 3 hours of class, I decided to be spontaneous and try a recipe that I've been thinking about forever, bacon wrapped dates stuffed with gorgonzola cheese.

 Ingredients:
All you need is bacon, medjool (or any other brand) dates, and gorgonzola cheese.  You will need differing amounts depending on how many you want to make.  I made 10 stuffed dates using 10 Medjool brand dates (they are pretty big!), 5 pieces of bacon, and less than a quarter lb of gorgonzola cheese  Remember, gorgonzola cheese is STRONG!

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
2. Wash the dates and cut them halfway open the remove the pits.
3. Stuff the dates with gorgonzola cheese depending on how much you like the stuff.  Blue cheese and goat cheese are also good alternatives
4. Wrap bacon around the dates.  Secure the bacon with a toothpick or put the closure on the bottom.
5. Cook for 20- 30 minutes.

 Thats all for now!