Tomato Basil Mac and Cheese

Mac and cheese. It's one of those perpetually delicious comfort meals.

And we love to experiment. That's what we did when we spotted some Cabot Tomato Basil Cheddar. And that's the blend of flavorings for a summertime mac and cheese dish.

We combined the Cabot cheddar with Crave Brothers mozzarella pearls for off-the-charts decadence that is rich and creamy. Toasted breadcrumbs would make a great topping to cut through some of that rich and creamy flavor.



Tomato Basil Mac and Cheese
Adapted from Cooking Light
4 servings

8 ounces uncooked pasta shells
1 1/4 cups fat-free milk
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
3/4 cup (3 ounces) shredded tomato basil cheddar cheese
1/3 cup (1 1/3 ounces) mozzarella pearls
1/4 cup (2 ounces) reduced fat cream cheese
fresh chopped basil
fresh chopped tomato

1. Cook pasta shells according to directions.

2. While pasta is cooking, combine milk and flour in a medium bowl and whisk until combined. In a large pan over medium-high heat, add the milk mixture and bring to a boil, stirring constantly.

3. Reduce heat to medium and stir in the tomato basil cheddar, mozzarella pearls and cream cheese. Cook until cheeses melt. Add cooked pasta and stir to combine.

4. Garnish with basil and tomatoes.

Pulled Pork and Pistol Point Grilled Cheese

When we picked up the award-winning Pistol Point cheese (Rogue Creamery in Oregon) from Brennan's Market, we were happy with the nice surprise.

The cheese, I thought, would pair nicely with some pulled pork, which we happened to have left over in the fridge. And, in celebration of National Grilled Cheese Month in April, we thought that would be a good sandwich to enjoy.

(Ahem. Let's not talk about how busy we were in April, and that the grilled cheese posts we intended to publish then are being published now. We're sorry.)

Regardless, the cheddar cheese laced with chipotle was a natural pairing for the pork, and really brought the spice and smoke of Southwest flavors to the foreground.


Pulled Pork and Pistol Point Grilled Cheese
2 servings

4 slices bread
4 tablespoons butter
1/4 pound pulled pork
2 to 4 ounces Pistol Point cheese

1. Butter each slice of bread and put two slices butter side down on a griddle over medium heat. 

2. Pile pork and cheese on top of two pieces of bread and top with remaining slice of bread. Grill each side until golden brown, about 3 to 5 minutes.

Peppered Bacon and Blackberry Grilled Cheese

We wish you a Happy National Grilled Cheese Month. Take the time this month to grab some cheese, some other ingredients and sandwich them between two slices of bunnage or breadage.

That's certainly what we will be doing. We have this simple yet tasty recipe for you today, plus a few more later this month.

As with a lot of our recipes, this one started with an ingredient: Blackberry Spread that we picked up from Brennan's Food Market. (If you can't get it, you could use some other blackberry preserves or jam.) We used a lot of it in previous dishes and snacks, but we had some left over. 

We wanted some other ingredients that would stand up to that deliciously sweet spread, so we picked out some aged cheddar (again from Brennan's) and some Nueske's Thick-Sliced Peppered Bacon. We piled all of that on some hearty Sprouted Rye from Angelic Bakehouse.

We wanted the cheese to stand out, obviously, and the tangy aged cheddar does well. It pairs nicely with the almost syrupy sweet blackberry sauce and the smoky bacon. You'll be glad you gave this grilled cheese a try.

Peppered Bacon and Blackberry Grilled Cheese
2 servings

4 slices rye bread
butter
4 to 5 ounces of aged cheddar, sliced
4 to 5 slices of peppered bacon, cooked
2 tablespoons blackberry spread

1. Place one slice per sandwich of rye bread on griddle, buttered side down.

2. Place cheese on top of unbuttered side of bread. Top that with bacon. 

3. Spread 1 tablespoon of blackberry spread on unbuttered side of another piece of bread. Place on top of sandwich, buttered side of bread up.

4. Grill until golden brown and delicious on both sides.

Turkey Club Panini with Tomato Spice Mayo

In this case, the motive was the Tomato Spice Jam full up on tomato, cane sugar, lemon zest and juice, cinnamon, nutmeg and natural pectin that we bought from Pinehold Gardens.

It's sweet but sultry, with that wisp of nutmeg drawing you in.

Melissa and I thought it would be perfect on a panini.

We mixed it with a little bit of mayo and begged it to play nice with some turkey, bacon, sharp cheddar cheese and avocado. And sandwiched between slices of hearty sourdough, the ingredients brought a mix of tastes: sour, sweet, creamy, sharp.

If you don't have a jar of tomato spice jam hanging around, you can always make your own. It's something we might add when next we can.



Turkey Club Panini with Tomato Spice Mayo
2 servings

1/8 cup mayo
1/8 cup tomato spice jam
4 slices sourdough bread
1 tablespoon butter
1/3 pound turkey breast, sliced
sharp cheddar cheese
4 slices bacon, cooked
1/2 avocado, sliced

1. Combine the mayo and spice tomato jam.

2. In a microwave or on the stovetop, cook the bacon.

3. Butter the four slices of bread and layer on the tomato spice mayo, turkey, cheddar, bacon and avocado on a slice and cover with another slice.

4. Place the two sandwiches on a griddle over medium heat (or on a panini press) and cook until golden brown, about 5 to 7 minutes. Flip over and do the same for the other side.

Chicken, Bacon and Broccoli Fontina Bake

In January we unearthed a really good recipe from Cooking Light, Fontina and Mascarpone Baked Pasta. We tried it, we liked it.

But to us, it was just the beginning. It was just a shell of what it could be. So we picked up some chicken, bacon and broccoli and tweaked a few things.

That's how we arrived at Chicken, Bacon and Broccoli Fontina Bake.



It's gooey -- thank you BelGioioso fontina -- and delightful -- kudos to Belgioioso, too. It's filling and hearty and helps for lasting in these long winter days in Wisconsin.

But when you get a bite of bacon -- we had Patrick Cudahy in our fridge -- that's when the dish really sings, and the cheese, broccoli and nutmeg dance.

Excuse me while I go have some more.



Chicken, Bacon and Broccoli Fontina Bake
adapted from Cooking Light
8 to 10 servings

14.5 ounces penne
3 small or 2 medium heads of broccoli, cut into florets
4 slices bacon, cut into rough chunks
2 chicken breasts, cut into half-inch pieces
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
3 cups fat-free milk
8 ounces fontina, shredded
4 ounces mascarpone cheese
salt and pepper to taste
dash of nutmeg
cooking spray
1/2 cup panko bread crumbs

1. Cook the pasta a few minutes less than directions suggest. A minute or two before that time, toss in the broccoli. Drain and set aside.

2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

3. Cook bacon until brown; remove from pan to a toweled drying rack or paper towels on top of a plate. Add chicken and cook through; remove from pan.

4. In a separate bowl, combine flour and milk. Add to chicken pan. Stir continuously until sauce thickens up, then add fontina and mascarpone. Stir in salt and pepper; add nutmeg. Add the chicken and bacon and the pasta and broccoli; stir and fold to combine.

5. In a 13-by-9 baking pan sprayed with cooking spray, spoon mixture in. Add panko to the top. Cook in oven for 20 to 25 minutes. Let stand for 5 minutes.

Green Tomato Pizza

Fall: It's that time of the year when you start heading back to your soup and stew standby recipes.

But for Melissa and me, it's also a time for another standby food: Pizza.

Coincidentally, we had a table full of green tomatoes, sprawled out on newspaper, slowly turning red. So we scooped up a couple of those and paired them with some lime basil pesto we made from our lime basil plant in the garden this summer. Add to that some slices of fresh mozzarella and we knew we had a contender for a great fall pizza.

(Keep in mind that the pizza dough recipe we link to yields enough dough for 2 pizzas. If you want only 1, cut it in half.)

Green Tomato Pizza
2 servings
printable recipe

1 pizza dough
cornmeal
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoons lime basil pesto
4 to 6 ounces fresh mozzarella cheese, sliced
1 to 2 medium green tomatoes, sliced

1. Make the pizza dough, allowing a couple of hours for the dough to rise.

2. Preheat oven to 500 degrees.

3. On a baking pan (or cookie sheet), toss on cornmeal liberally. Put dough on pan, slowly stretching it to the confines of the pan, or about 11 inches by 16 inches.

4. Drizzle olive oil along the edges of the dough, using your hands or a brush to coat it more fully.

5. Spread lime basil pesto (or pesto of your choosing) on the dough. Add slices of mozzarella and then green tomatoes.

6. Bake for 10 minutes. 

Do you have green tomatoes from your garden? What are you making with them?

Garden Vegetable Omelette Burger

I have been craving a burger for so, so long. A nice, juicy grilled piece of meat, saddled between a pair of hearty Cybros: The Sprouted Bakehouse buns.

And that insatiable appetite for a filling burger led to me to think about how I could make it unique. For weeks I was anguishing over how to do so. Racking my brain here, racking my brain there. To no avail.

But then DudeFoods posted his recipe for Eggs Benedict Burger and I thought of my garden: Zucchini, tomatoes, broccoli, basil.

I harvested that idea and set to take those garden vegetables, combine them with a few other ingredients, and make an omelette atop a burger.

And I used other local ingredients (in keeping with the Eat Local Challenge) in the burger: Cybros buns and Arthur Bay Cheese Co. cheddar. I threw in a couple of slices of avocado for some creaminess, and:

It was a bit difficult to eat (the omelette and avocado slid around some), but it was well worth it. The broccoli and zucchini provided a nice crunch, the cheese provided a richness and the buns brought heartiness.

No recipe needed; cook burgers in your favorite method, and prepare individual omelettes just as burgers are near readiness. Pile it all between some hearty buns, and you're set for the night.

If you made an omelette with ingredients in your garden, what would be in it?

Stuffed Veggie Bread

Stuffed bread turned up during a recent meal planning discussion, and for good reason. Melissa came across several recipes on Pinterest and our Wisconsin food blogger friend Alison made Stuffed Veggie Bread recently.

So we set off to the store and the kitchen with a couple of roadmaps in hand.

The first (and what this blog post was going to be) was for Stuffed Pizza Bread. Alas, we realized when we started making it that we lacked mozzarella cheese, and it didn't feel right to call this recipe "pizza" without it.

Instead, this one morphed into Stuffed Veggie Bread, but there's nothing wrong with that. We'll just throw on some Parmesan instead. (Insert Wisconsin cheese giddiness.)

• Feel free to use less butter, if you're so inclined. We mixed in a lot of garlic and wanted to have those flavors in the dish, but you can always decrease the butter and garlic.

Stuffed Veggie Bread
4 servings

1 loaf Italian bread
1 stick butter
4 garlic cloves
2 to 3 green onions, chopped
1 green pepper, diced
2 to 3 large mushrooms, diced
10 to 12 black olives, diced
2 medium tomatoes, diced
1/2 cup cheddar cheese
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
pasta sprinkles for garnish

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. While the oven is heating, melt the butter and garlic together in the microwave. (Tip: Watch the butter or it will overflow if you put too much time on.)

2. Slice the bread in half, but do not cut all the way through. Leave the bottom 1/2 inch to 1 inch attached. Do the same for the loaf length-wise, cutting about 1 inch apart.

3. Stuff veggies and cheese down the slits and coat the garlic butter on the top of the loaf. Bake for 20 minutes.

Saucy Summer Vegetables over Creamy Parmesan Polenta

Polenta is one of those ingredients that I love that we don't use a lot. Really, we use it only in one of our favorite standby recipes. It's creamy when made from scratch, and I'm not sure why we don't think to use it more often.

So for a while now, I've been mulling over how to use some creamy homemade polenta in a dish. Then I saw the Baked Polenta Squares with Summer Vegetable Topping from Vanilla & Spice and was inspired.

For the polenta, we used Giada De Laurentiis' recipe, which consists of water, salt, cornmeal and butter. We added about 1 to 1 1/2 cups of Parmesan with the butter.

The dish turned out quite well with the creaminess of the polenta and the tang of the Parmesan mixing with the tomato sauce and the heartiness of the vegetables. And it's filling enough to stand as a main course. It plays nicely with other food, too, pairing well with a side salad.

Saucy Summer Vegetables over Creamy Parmesan Polenta
4 to 6 servings

Parmesan polenta
Basic polenta recipe
1 to 1 1/2 cups Parmesan

Summer vegetables
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 small white onions, chopped
2 cloves garlic
4 small zucchini, sliced
15 to 20 grape tomatoes, halved
15 ounces tomato sauce
1/2 lemon, juiced
1 tablespoon basil
1 tablespoon lime basil
1/2 tablespoon Italian parsley

1. In a large pot, cook the polenta according to directions. (Boil water, add salt, gradually add cornmeal and add butter at the end.) Add the Parmesan with the butter.

2. In a separate pan, saute the onions, garlic, zucchini and grape tomatoes in the olive oil over medium heat. The onions should turn translucent and the zucchini should soften.

3. Add the tomato sauce and simmer over low heat for 5 to 10 minutes.

4. Remove from heat and add the lemon juice, basil, lime basil and Italian parsley. Serve over about 1 cup of polenta.

Tortellini Pasta Salad

If you are a regular reader, you'll have noticed our blog posts have been infrequent. We've gone through some changes recently and those have affected the time we have to cook. And, therefore, to blog.

But we've been thinking about blog posts ideas while keeping the time constraints in the kitchen as low as possible.

Melissa had an easy idea when we came across some tortellini at the store: A warm tortellini pasta salad.

It turned out to be really great, filled with creamy cheesiness, fresh vegetables and a slightly tangy dressing. And it should be even better at the end of the summer, when we'll be able to use garden-fresh ingredients in the dish.

Tortellini Pasta Salad
6 servings

Salad
2 pounds tortellini (ours were five cheese), cooked and cooled to room temperature (or your preference)
4 green onions, chopped
4 Roma tomatoes, seeded and diced
1/4 cup pre-chopped basil
15-ounce can olives, sliced
2 tablespoons Parmesan cheese

Dressing
1/4 to 1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon dijon mustard
1/4 teaspoon honey
2 tablespoons Parmesan cheese
salt and pepper to taste

What have you been making in your kitchens lately?

Strawberry, Mint and Honey Grilled Cheese

April is almost over, and with it, National Grilled Cheese Month. We've celebrated at home with some during the month, all of which had been simple: Bread + cheese.

No longer.

Melissa's idea for one came to life this weekend after being inspired by a trip to Brennan's Market, where we bought some Wisconsin-made farmers cheese with mint. (You can include mint separately on the sandwich if you can't find this cheese.)

The result was a filling sandwich that walked the tightrope between entree and desert. Our bread, a whole grain loaf, kept it on the savory side.

The creamy combination of the cream cheese and farmers cheese hit sweet notes with the inclusion of the strawberries and slight drizzle of honey. And the mint helped cut through the warm sweetness of the strawberries.

Strawberry, Mint and Honey Grilled Cheese
bread
reduced-fat cream cheese
strawberries
farmers cheese
mint
honey

1. Spread layer of cream cheese on slices of bread. Spread sliced strawberries on top, followed by a small drizzle of honey, a thick slice of farmers cheese and a few sprigs of mint.

Mexican Meatloaf Minis

Saturday mornings are a zen time in our household. Melissa handles cutting out and organizing coupons and we both work out our meal plan for the week.

During one of these recent brainstorm sessions, I was perusing Pinterest for some meal ideas. I came across a couple of ideas that merged in my head. I don't remember what one was, only that it centered on Southwest flavors. And the other one was a meatloaf recipe.

Mexican meatloaf was born. Although the recipe we created was slightly different from what we envisioned. We were going to use cotija instead of queso fresco, but since we were using queso fresco in other meals that week, we opted to substitute that for the cotija.

The result was a spicy mixture, but could easily be reduced by the amount of pickled jalapenos and chili pepper. Crumbling a bit more queso fresco on the top also would help cool off the tongue.

Mexican Meatloaf Minis
6 servings

1 pound ground beef
3/4 cup crushed crackers
2 eggs
2 limes, juiced
1/4 cup pickled jalapenos, diced
1/4 cup ketchup
1/4 cup queso fresco, broken into large chunks
2 teaspoons chili pepper
1 teaspoon cumin
2 teaspoons minced onion
1 teaspoon granulated garlic
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
Chili ketchup
ketchup
chili powder

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Combine ground beef, crushed crackers, eggs, lime juice, pickled jalapenos, ketchup, queso fresco, chili pepper, cumin, minced onion, granulated garlic, salt and pepper in a large mixing bowl and mix by hand until all ingredients are incorporated well.

2. On a broiler pan, form 6 mini meatloafs and space out from each other.

3. In a small bowl, combine ketchup and chili powder to your tastes. Slather ketchup mixture on top of each meatloaf.

4. Bake for 45 minutes. Sprinkle more queso fresco on top of each meatloaf and serve.

Melthouse Bistro and National Grilled Cheese Month

Today is April 2, and that might not seem like an important date to you, but it means that there's already one less day in National Grilled Cheese Month. Sad face.

In March we attended a grilled cheese event at Melthouse Bistro, where attendees sampled a bunch of tasting cheeses as well as some of Grilled Cheese Academy's best grilled cheese sandwiches.

Our favorite was The Biloxi ($8.95), which was Wisconsin fontina, pulled barbecue pork, pickles and creamy coleslaw on buttertop white.

The Biloxi

Some of the tasting cheese that we loved were the Aged Brick Spread by Widmer's Cheese Cellars, Quark by Clock Shadow Creamery and Raspberry Bellavitano by Sartori.

The Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board, through the Grilled Cheese Academy, is having a grilled cheese recipe contest that ends May 8. Win an all-expenses-paid trip for two to New York City as well as recipe inclusion in the recipe book in September. Visit Wisconsin Cheese Talk to learn more.

Have fun cooking!

Our grilled cheese recipes

• Pepperjack and Bacon Grilled Cheese Sandwich
• Havarti, Cream Cheese, Dill and Bacon Grilled Cheese

Tex-Mex Taco Mac and Cheese

As we came down from the thrill of our Taco Salad Pizza, we scrounged around for ideas to use up the rest of our leftover taco-flavored meat.

And a Pinterest find inspired Melissa to combine that taco meat into a mac and cheese dish.

The result was a high in our 2012 culinary journey.

This recipe was so good that we both relished the leftovers the next couple of days. And it reheated well.

The Tex-Mex flavors, including the Cabot chipotle cheddar that we used, provided a punch that the cool tomatoes balanced out. The cheese oozed creaminess and the green onions gave a texture and flavor contrasted against that.

Taco Mac and Cheese
serves 6

1/2 pound ground sirloin
16 ounces macaroni pasta
2 1/2 cups milk
4 tablespoons flour
2 tablespoons taco seasoning
2 1/2 ounces Cabot chipotle cheddar, shredded
3 1/2 ounces cheddar cheese, shredded
2 2/3 ounces monterey jack cheese, shredded
4 ounces cream cheese
1 teaspoon garlic salt
salt, pepper and hot sauce to taste
1 Roma tomato, diced
3 green onions, sliced

1. Brown the meat in a skillet. In a large stockpot, cook the pasta, about 8 to 10 minutes.

2. Whisk the milk and flour together. Then add to the meat and cook until thickened, about 5 minutes.

3. Add the chipotle cheddar, regular cheddar and cream cheese to the meat mixture. Cook until cheese has melted, about 5 minutes.

4. Add taco seasoning. Season with garlic salt, salt, pepper and hot sauce. Garnish individual servings with diced tomatoes and dice green onions.

Taco Salad Pizza

It all started as a salad. No, really.

We prepared a simple salad for supper one night: Romaine, taco-flavored beef and fixings. And Melissa thought (ingeniously) to mix together some of our homemade ranch dip with our homemade canned salsa. Adding that dip blend to our salad produced a spicy, creamy concoction that paired well with the other Tex-Mex flavors.

And, you know what? It was delicious, and reminded us of a flavor profile that we might eat at California Pizza Kitchen.

With some pizza dough from Cybros sitting in our freezer, I suggested that we make it into a pizza. It seemed like the logical next step.

So we did.

Taco Salad Pizza
Cybros pizza dough
1/4 pound ground sirloin
1 tomato, diced
4 green onions, sliced
1/2 cup monterey jack cheese
1/2 cup Cabot chipotle cheddar cheese
1/2 cup salsa ranch (we mixed our homemade canned salsa with our homemade ranch dip)
2 corn tortillas, baked and cut into strips

1. Cook the sirloin or other beef choice and add taco seasonings. Add the meat and other ingredients to the top of the pizza. (If you use Cybros as we did, you will need to partially bake the dough.)

Roasted Cauliflower Soup with Horseradish Cheddar

Spring has sprung in Wisconsin, but as we were contemplating meals, winter's shadow still cast itself on us. With that pall hanging over us, soup was on.

In addition, we knew that we still had some Cabot cheese lingering in our fridge, and we wanted to use that up soon. The cheese we had the most of at that time was the Horseradish cheddar.

The result was a largely improvised recipe, stemming from the use of a head of cauliflower and the cheese. But flavor-wise it was quite an achievement. The horseradish cheddar, which alone had an overpowering taste, was nicely subdued in the soup. Yet it still packed a sharp punch. The red pepper flakes and the roasted cauliflower brought a bit of a heat and smokiness to the mix.

We served our soup with Cybros 7-grain baguette.

Cauliflower about to be roasted. Specks of red pepper flakes and olive oil coat the pan.

Roasted Cauliflower Soup with Horseradish Cheddar
serves 6 to 8

1 head cauliflower, cut into small chunks
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 lemon, juiced
red pepper flakes
kosher salt
1 medium yellow onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, chopped
14.5 ounce can plus 3 tablespoons chicken broth
4 cups 2% milk
1/3 cup flour
5 ounces horseradish cheddar, grated
salt and pepper to taste

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. On a baking pan, spread out the cauliflower evenly and sprinkle with olive oil, lemon juice, red pepper flakes and kosher salt. Roast until cauliflower is starting to brown, about 10 minutes.

2. In a medium bowl, whisk milk and flour together.

3. In a large stockpot, brown onion and garlic in olive oil. Add chicken broth and milk and flour mixture. Bring the mixture to a simmer.

4. Then, after it has thickened, blend a little bit of the soup to thicken it, but not enough to lose all of the chunks of cauliflower.

5. Add the grated horseradish cheddar and salt and pepper.

Southwest Turkey Sliders

Pinterest was again the inspiration for our meal planning when Melissa saw a photo of Turkey and Avocado Sliders.

It got her to think about how we could make our own turkey sliders recipe. And that's when things sort of fell into place.

We had fallen in love with Cybros: The Sprouted Bakehouse in Waukesha recently. The 7-grain dinner rolls would serve as our delivery vessel. And, around the same time, Cabot Cheese was kind enough to send us some of their cheese, and we thought their chipotle cheddar would work wonderfully in a Southwest sliders recipe.

We topped it off with some snack crackers for a bit of a texture variation, 1 egg for maximum binding effect and Penzeys toasted minced onions for a flavor punch.

The result: A juicy, spicy but well-rounded turkey slider, with a hearty 7-grain roll, creaminess from the avocado, and topped off with the chipotle cheddar.

Southwest Turkey Sliders
makes 8 to 10

1 1/4 pound ground turkey
8 to 10 crushed snack crackers
2 tablespoons ketchup
1 egg
dashes of hot sauce
dashes of Worcestershire sauce
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 1/2 teaspoons toasted minced onions
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
8 to 10 Cybros 7-grain dinner rolls
1/2 avocado, sliced
1/2 tomato, sliced

1. In a large bowl, mix the ground turkey, snack crackers, ketchup, egg, hot sauce, Worcestershire sauce, cumin, chili powder, garlic powder, toasted minced onions, salt and pepper together.

2. Form mixture into patties, no more than 3 inches long (or other length, depending on the buns or rolls you use).

3. Cook sliders on griddle for about 3 to 5 minutes per side.

4. Top sliders with a slice or two of avocado and a slice of tomato, and serve on a dinner roll or bun.

Simple Ham and Cheese Quiche

Custard? Why, yes, I love custard. (This is Wisconsin, after all.)

But a custard egg dish? Never tried it. So, for a challenge, a Ham and Cheese Quiche it is.

For guidance, we turned to "The America's Test Kitchen Family Baking Book." We used the Simple Cheese Quiche recipe from ATK, but added some frozen Christmas ham that we had just hogging up some freezer space.

It was a new culinary experience for me. The texture was soft and a little bit runny, but enjoyable. The flavors were classic and simple: Small chunks of meaty ham, flaky crust and fragrant herbs. Savory custard? Yeah, I can get behind that.

Hawaiian and Southwest Pulled Pork Sandwiches

An interesting thing happened to us on our way to meal planning recently.

We went to Pinterest to find some ideas and, in consultation with store sales, we opted for a pork shoulder recipe. I found Hawaiian Pulled Pork Sandwiches and knew that was the one. When I clicked through the link, I found it was from Dax, a fellow Wisconsin blogger over at Simple Comfort Food. (If you haven't visited his blog, do so today.)

Our version differed from Dax's in a few ways: We left out the habanero pepper, and instead of the jalapeno pepper, we used our pickled jalapenos. Our pickled jalapenos still had seeds in them, and since we didn't want our pork to be too spicy, we used a little bit less than Dax did.

When I tasted the meat alone, it was a bit heavy on the ginger. But when I had it as a sandwich, that was muted a bit, and a full bite was much better and the depth of flavors was much more apparent. I think my pallette is just sensitive to ginger.

We kicked up our sandwiches by adding some leftover queso fresco and some of our homemade canned bread and butter pickles. It was a mixture of tangy and spicy pork, creamy cheese and sweet and sour notes from the pickles.

Wisconsin Maple Cheddar and Breakfast Sausage Frittata

Meal ideas can come from many places. Sometimes it's from a craving, sometimes it's from cookbook.

In this case, it's from an ingredient.

One of the Christmas presents we got this year was a Brennan's Market gift card from my mom. Melissa went one day to the store and bough several items, Wisconsin maple cheddar cheese among them.

This cheese is enticing: A deep maple aroma assaults your senses, but when you bite into it, the maple is far more subtle and the cheddar takes precedence.

We wondered how we could use the cheese in a meal, and Melissa thought to make a frittata. So we bought some breakfast sausage, rummaged through our freezer and found hashbrowns and proceded to build from there.

The perfect bite was a balance of the sausage and the cheese and egg, with the scent of maple thrown in.

Wisconsin Maple Cheddar and Breakfast Sausage Frittata
6 servings

1 tablespoon butter, enough to coat pan
1 medium onion, diced
1 1/2 cups hashbrowns
6 breakfast sausages, removed from casings
4 eggs
3 egg whites
2 tablespoons milk
salt to taste
pepper to taste
chives to taste
3/4 to 1 cup maple cheddar, shredded

1. Saute onions in butter in large skillet. When translucent, add hashbrowns. Make sure the hashbrowns are dry so they brown quicker.

2. In another skillet, cook the breakfast sausages until heated through. Remove sausage from skillet.

3. In a large bowl, combine eggs, egg whites, milk, salt, pepper, chives and maple cheddar.

4. In the large skillet, combine onion, hashbrowns and sausage. Add egg mixture and cook for a couple of minutes, pulling cooked eggs from the side of the skillet and allowing more of the eggs to cook.

5. Broil until cooked through, about 10 minutes.