I feel like while all of you have been eating healthy things like salad, soups, and egg whites, I've been stuffing my face with pizza, wings, and cupcakes. Lots and lots of cupcakes. The last time I ate something green that wasn't tinted with food coloring (never a good sign) was too long to remember. Until now. I think green beans are a year-round vegetable because I don't really think they taste different in the winter than they do in the summer unless they come out of my own garden. I could be wrong or maybe I'm just desperate for anything fresh in the winter. So fresh green beans with mushrooms, garlic, and almonds are pretty fantastic right now (and at all times of the year)...not to mention healthy. Thank goodness. Maybe I can retire my fat pants if I eat enough of these and less pizza. Fingers crossed! 

I have some fun news to share today. In 2012, I traveled to New Orleans, Ireland, and France for my previous job with a writer, Linda. Linda now is starting a free ezine and has asked me to be a part of it. It's going to be great. It comes out every month and will have articles/stories from yours truly, celebrity interviews, movie reviews, health and life coaching articles, book reviews, stories from a travel blog, and much more. The title of the ezine is perfect- Aurora: A Guide to Living in Color. Because nothing about your life should be ordinary. If you want to sign up to receive this ezine, you can send an email to AuroraLifeInColor@gmail.com with the subject YES. The first issue comes out January 30th and will repeat each month. I hope you all sign up because it's going to be a lot of fun. And you can never get enough of me, right? Right? Crickets. Ok...I'm sick of me already. The other women involved are pretty amazing, so I'm excited to get it in my email every month!

So there you have it. Green beans and fun stories. Let's do it, shall we?

My Favorite Green Beans
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8 ounces of fresh green beans, ends trimmed and cut in half
1 tablespoon butter, divided
4 ounces mushrooms
1 garlic clove
2 tablespoons sliced almonds
Salt to taste

In a medium sauce pan, boil salted water. Add the green beans once the water is boiling and cook for about 7 minutes or until the green beans are cooked but still crunchy. Drain and plunge into ice water to stop them from cooking.

While the green beans are boiling, melt half of the butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the mushrooms and cook until they have released their liquid and are soft. Stir in the garlic and cook about 30 seconds until fragrant. Add the almonds.

Drain the green beans and add them to the mushroom mixture. Add the rest of the butter and season with the salt. Cook on medium until warm. Serve immediately.

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Word on the street is that this was President Reagan's favorite mac and cheese. Word in my house is that this is what my Grandma served me every time I came over for lunch or dinner. Every time. I never knew it was Ronald Reagan's favorite until we went through her recipe box. He had good taste because it definitely was my favorite meal at her house.

This is not your stringy ooey gooey mac and cheese. If that's what you're looking for, don't try this recipe. However, this is just as good. It has a custard-y (yes, that's a word--go with it) sauce (except it's not really a sauce). Oh boy. I love trying to express myself. The best part of the mac and cheese is the crispy and crunchy topping that it gets when it bakes. Oh boy. My grandma always sprinkled some paprika on everything so I had to carry the tradition. Plus, it really does taste better with it. Just gives it a little something extra.

So if you have good taste like me and the prez, I highly recommend you try this. As soon as possible. It's easy to make and it has no roux, which means it reheats pretty nicely, too. I should know because I've been eating a lot of it lately!

President Reagan's Mac and Cheese Recipe
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8 ounces macaroni (I used shells)
1 tablespoon butter
1 egg
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon dry mustard
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon hot water
3 cups cheddar cheese, shredded
Paprika

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Boil the macaroni in salted water until al dente. Drain. Off the heat add the butter to the pot with the macaroni. Stir in the egg until the macaroni is covered. Dissolve the dry mustard and salt in the hot water and add to the milk. Stir the milk mixture into the pasta. Add in 2 cups of cheddar cheese. Pour into a greased 9x9 or 10x10 pan and sprinkle the remaining 1 cup of cheese on top. Sprinkle with paprika. Bake for about 45 minutes until bubbling and crispy on top. Let cool for a few minutes before serving.

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The first time I saw these potatoes, I knew they would be an instant hit at my meat-and-potato house. But the recipe I followed led to burning butter and a smoky oven and house. They were good, but I knew there had to be a better way to make them. A few months later, I happened to be watching an episode of Cook's Country on PBS, and it showed me a better way to make them. Gotta love that!

So here are a few tricks:
1. Place a wooden spoon next to the potato while you slice it. Your spoon will stop the knife from cutting all the way through the potato. The first time I did this, I put the spoon under my potato and shockingly sliced right through it. I was confused. Don't be like me.
2. Run water between each slice in the potato to get rid of the starch that acts like a glue. This will lead to better fanning.
3. Microwave your sliced potato for 5-7 minutes to help speed along the cooking process.
4. Brush the top of the potato and in between the slices with olive oil before it goes in the oven. Once it's done, then you can add the butter and cheese and pop it back in the oven until the cheese melts. This will keep your house from smelling like you don't know how to cook (a definite plus when you have dinner guests).
 
There are a million variations you can try with this method. I love putting sharp cheddar cheese on mine, but you could add chives and bacon, garlic, other seasonings, and I've seen it done with sweet potatoes, too. These are a great alternative to the standard baked potato, and when they get crispy on the top and bottom, it almost feels like you're eating a fried potato...without some of those calories! 

Hasselback Potatoes Recipe
Makes two potatoes
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2 large potatoes
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1/2 cup cheddar cheese
Kosher salt

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees.

Scrub your potatoes well and place them on the counter next to a wooden spoon. Cut thin slices through your potato, using the wooden spoon to keep you from cutting all the way through it. If you do cut through it, you can use a toothpick to put it back together. 

Run water in each cut to remove the starch. Microwave the potatoes for 5-7 minutes (depending on the size of your potato). Spray a cookie sheet with cooking spray and place the potatoes, cut side up, on it. Brush the olive oil on top of the potato and in between each slice. Bake for 30-45 minutes or until the inside is soft.  
 
Once the inside is soft, drizzle the butter on top of the potato and inside the slices. Place the cheese inside the slices and on top and bake for another 5 minutes until the cheese has melted. Sprinkle with kosher salt to taste and serve.

Tips from Cook's Country

As much as I love food now, I was a total brat growing up. I would eat mac and cheese, potatoes, and cold hot dogs. My parents would play the "if you eat three more bites, you can leave the table" game, and I would sit at the table for hours because I was too stubborn. It's definitely not that I was full. I just didn't like it. One day, they served something that I didn't like (again), and I *kind of* threw a fit. A big fat fit. I kept loudly saying (some might say I was yelling) "I want a potato!" My mom looked at my dad and told him to get me a potato; so my dad got up, grabbed a potato, and slammed it on the table. I looked at him, burst into tears, and yelled "I want a baked potato!" Looking back, it's pretty funny, but I know I'm going to pay for that when I have kids. Big time.

At Thanksgiving, I would eat a tiny piece of turkey, a lot of mashed potatoes (with extra butter, no gravy), and a few rolls. My uncle looked at my plate once and asked if I ate anything that wasn't white. Clearly not. So I've had my share of potatoes over the years, especially at Thanksgiving. I've been making these for as long as I can remember, and I love how adaptable they are. I've learned a few tricks along the way, like to put a clove of garlic in the water while you're boiling them because everything is better with garlic.

This is my favorite mashed potato recipe (for right now). If you're making these for a crowd, I highly recommend you use evaporated milk. However, regular milk works great, too, especially if you don't want to open an entire can for a small serving. When we make these for Thanksgiving, we boil the potatoes and once they're finished cooking, we drain the water, place the butter in the pan with the potatoes, and put the lid back on. Once things are ready to start coming together for dinner, we quickly mash them and add the other ingredients. One tip, always make sure you add enough salt. Nothing is worse than undersalted potatoes! 

Mashed Potatoes Recipe
Serves 3-4
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Note: This recipe makes enough for 3-4 people. To make more, just double or triple the recipe.

1 1/2 pounds of Russet potatoes, peeled (about 2 large potatoes)
1 garlic clove, peeled
4 tablespoons butter
4 ounces cream cheese
1/2 cup evaporated milk
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
Chives (optional)

Cut your peeled potatoes into 1/2 inch slices and cut the slices in half. Place them in a large pan filled 2/3 the way full with salted water. Place the garlic clove into the pan with the water and potatoes. Cover the pan and heat it on high on the stove. Once the water boils, crack the lid and turn the heat down to medium-high. Let boil until the potatoes are fork tender, about 30 minutes from when you turn on the stove. Drain the water out of the pan, add the butter into the pan with the potatoes, and place the lid back on the pan.

After the butter has melted, add the cream cheese and mash the potatoes using a potato masher. Once the potatoes are mashed to your desired chunkiness, slowly add the milk while continuing to mash. Once the potatoes have reached your desired consistency, add the salt and pepper, adding more to taste if needed. Garnish with chives (optional but recommended) and serve.

A She Makes and Bakes recipe

I've been getting the magazine Taste of Home for a couple of years now, and I think they have some great recipes. I was struck by a recipe in last month's issue, but I was more excited by the idea of it than the actual recipe: green bean casserole stuffed mushrooms. Their recipe had pureed stuffing, and I really didn't think it looked too appetizing. It kind of looked like baby food stuffed into a mushroom. I didn't even read how they made it because I wanted to create my own and make it "prettier."

Now I'm not going to lie and say this is something that you can quickly whip up. There are a few parts to it: you have to roast the mushrooms, boil the green beans, fry the onions, and make the sauce. But you can multitask a lot with this recipe. While the oven is preheating, you can make the onion topping. While the mushrooms are roasting, you can make the sauce. I tried a few different variations of this before I came up with this recipe, so I know that you can't put the sauce into the mushrooms and then roast them. It becomes a hot mess. It's best to roast the mushrooms separately and then stuff em and serve em.  

I do, of course, have a way you can enjoy this appetizer with much less work. If you're making green bean casserole, save out a few of the green beans and chop them into 1/4 inch pieces. Pull out some of the sauce (minus the mushrooms), mix the green beans into it and spoon it into the roasted mushroom caps. You can even top it with the canned onions if you don't feel like frying the shallots or you could fry the shallots earlier in the day so they're ready when you need them. Whatever way that you do this, I think people will be pleasantly surprised by this appetizer. It's a different spin on the typical green bean casserole.   

Green Bean Casserole Stuffed Mushrooms Recipe
Makes 8-10 mushrooms
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8-10 large mushrooms, rinsed and stems removed

For the filling:
10-12 green beans, trimmed
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon all purpose flour
1/2 small clove of garlic, minced
1/4 cup chicken broth
1/4 cup heavy cream
1/4 teaspoon salt

For the onion topping:
1 small shallot, sliced thinly
1 tablespoon all purpose flour
Dash of salt and pepper
Dash of cayenne powder
1/4 cup milk
2 tablespoons vegetable oil

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and spray a small sheet pan with cooking spray.

While your oven is preheating, make the onion topping. Place the sliced shallot in the milk and let sit for 10 minutes. Place the vegetable oil in a small skillet and heat on medium until smoking. In a small bowl, mix together the flour, salt, pepper, and cayenne. Remove the shallot slices from the milk and dredge them through the flour mixture. When the oil is hot, carefully place the floured shallot slices into the oil and let cook for about two minutes or until they are golden brown, turning the slices so they don't burn. Remove to a paper towel and let sit while you make everything else. 
  
When you oven has preheated, place the mushrooms cap side down on the pan and bake for 20 minutes. Drain the liquid in the caps.

While the mushrooms are cooking, make the filling. Fill a medium saucepan with salted water and boil. Place in the green beans and cook for 5-6 minutes until bright green and crisp. Drain the green beans and plunge into a bowl filled with ice cold water to stop the cooking. Then cut the green beans into 1/4 inch pieces. 

In the same saucepan, melt the butter and whisk in the flour and garlic. Stir and let brown for one minute. Add in the chicken broth slowly while whisking and let cook for one minute. Then whisk in the cream. Let cook for about 2 minutes while stirring until the sauce has thickened. If it's too thick, you can add more broth. Season with 1/4 teaspoon salt and add more if needed to taste. Remove from heat and stir in the chopped green beans.
 
Place a spoonful of the green bean topping into each mushroom cap and top with some of the fried shallots. Serve immediately.

A She Makes and Bakes original

Thanksgiving is less than two weeks away; are you ready? Let the menu planning begin. Or maybe you're like me and you've already been planning. We always go to my parent's house for Thanksgiving, and it's usually a fairly small affair. We love to have variety, so we try and do small batches of everything but that hardly works. We always have way too much food.

Too much food at Thanksgiving? That probably only happens at my house, right? One of my favorite Thanksgiving foods is green bean casserole, and while I love the cream of mushroom version, it is absolutely incredible homemade. As in completely from scratch. Real green beans, a real roux sauce, and real mushrooms. We first had this a couple of years ago when I saw it in one of my America's Test Kitchen cookbooks. The flavors are stupendous, and it's everything you want your green bean casserole to be. The first time I made this recipe, I used this recipe for crispy fried onion strings as my topping. I highly recommend it, but it's kind of a pain to fry the onions and such. If you want the more convenient and still delicious route, the onion topping below is the way to go. I know this takes more time than the usual green bean casserole, but it's definitely worth it!

Homemade Green Bean Casserole
Makes a 9x13 pan
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2 pounds green beans, trimmed and halved
3 tablespoons butter
1 pound mushrooms, stems removed and quartered
3 garlic cloves, minced
Salt and pepper
3 tablespoons all purpose flour
1 1/2 cups chicken broth
1 1/2 cups heavy cream

For the topping: 
1 cup panko bread crumbs
2 tablespoons butter
1/4 teaspoon seasoned salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
3 cups canned fried onions

Fill a large bowl half full with cold water and some ice. Bring a large pot of salted water to boil. Add the green beans to the boiling water and cook until bright green and tender but crisp, about 5-6 minutes. Drain the green beans and then plunge them into the cold water bath to stop the cooking. 

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees.

In the same pot, melt the butter over medium-high heat. Add the mushrooms and garlic and cook until the mushrooms have released their liquid and it has evaporated. Add the flour and cook for one minute while stirring. Add in the broth and let simmer, stirring constantly, and then add in the cream. Reduce the heat to medium and simmer until the sauce has thickened, about 10-12 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

While the sauce is thickening, make the topping. Melt the butter in a small skillet and add in the panko bread crumbs. Mix in the seasoned salt and pepper and stir frequently. When the bread crumbs have turned a golden brown color, remove from heat and stir in the canned fried onions.

When the sauce has thickened, stir in the drained green beans. Spoon the green bean mixture into a greased 9x13 pan and spread the topping mixture on top. Bake for 15 minutes until the top is brown and the sauce is bubbling around the sides.

Barely adapted from The Best of America's Test Kitchen 2008 cookbook 

I'm not going to lie...the first time I saw this on Pink Parsley's blog, I definitely turned my nose up at it. Tomato cobbler? Weird and gross. The second time I saw it on Annie's Eats, I turned my nose up again, but maybe it wasn't quite as high. It kind of stuck in the back of my mind. Well maybe, I thought. My biggest hang up was (is) the fact that I'm not a total tomato lover, as I've previously mentioned. I especially don't like fresh tomatoes. And I don't like tomato skin in my cooked tomatoes. So I stored it in my mind for another year.

This summer I've really come around to eating more and more tomatoes. So I thought about the tomato cobbler yet again and decided to make it. Oh my. For one, your house will smell absolutely incredible while you bake it. That alone makes this dish worth the effort. There's something about the caramelized onions mixed with the garlic mixed with the butter from the biscuits that is to die for. It's not a pool of tomato juice with soggy biscuits on top. Not at all. The biscuits are light, fluffy, and crispy on top with plenty of amazing gruyere in and on them. I even liked the roasted tomatoes in the cobbler. It gave each bite a bit of freshness. The whole dish is quite wonderful, although the hubs turned his nose up and said it was weird. Maybe he just needs a couple of years to adjust to the idea like I did.

Tomato Cobbler with Gruyere Biscuits Recipe
Makes a 9x13 dish
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Note: I cut this recipe in half and baked it in a 1.5 quart baking dish for about 50 minutes. This takes a bit of time to prep and bake, so you could caramelize the onions the day before and keep them in the fridge. Then just put everything together and bake. Also, if you love caramelized onions, you definitely should double that part of the recipe!

For the filling:
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons butter
2 medium onions, thinly sliced
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoon fresh thyme, chopped
3 pounds cherry or grape tomatoes
3 tablespoons all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
Salt and pepper

For the biscuits:
2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
Kosher salt
1/2 cup butter, cold and chopped into pieces
1 cup grated gruyere cheese, plus 2 tablespoons for sprinkling
1 1/2 cups cold heavy cream

To make the cobbler filling, heat olive oil and butter over medium heat in a large pan and add onions. Cook, stirring occasionally, until caramelized (about 25-30 minutes). Add the garlic and thyme and cook until fragrant, about 1-2 minutes. Let cool.

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.

In a large bowl, toss tomatoes, flour, red pepper flakes, and onion mixture. Pour into a greased 2 quart baking dish or a 9x13 pan.

To make the biscuits, in a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt. Add in the butter and incorporate it using two knives, a fork, or a pastry blender until it resembles coarse crumbs. Mix in the cheese, and add in the cream. Stir with a fork until the dough forms into a large clump (it will be sticky). Using an ice cream scoop, 1/4 measuring cup, or a large spoon, drop clumps of the biscuit dough on top of the cobbler filling. Sprinkle the top with the remaining 2 tablespoons of cheese.

Bake for one hour to one hour and ten minutes or until the filling is bubbling and the biscuits are golden brown. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool 20 minutes before serving. 

Source: Annie's Eats and Pink Parsley, originally from Martha Stewart Living

In the last year, I have come to absolutely love all things caprese. Even though I'm not a big fan of raw tomatoes, when you pair them with fresh basil, I could eat them all day long. When I saw this recipe in the Easy Summer Food cookbook, I wanted to try it asap. You score tomatoes, stuff mozzarella in them, and then bake them until they're warm and soft and the cheese is melted. Then you top it off with basil, olive oil, and balsamic vinegar. I love these. Baking the tomatoes tones down the fresh tomato flavor just a touch, and of course you can't go wrong with the caprese combination. I truly believe that fresh basil makes almost anything taste better. I highly recommend you make these before your basil plant dies and tomato season is over. Your mouth will thank you.

Baked Caprese Recipe
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Note: This recipe makes 10 tomatoes, but you can easily make it using as many tomatoes as you want. I made it with four tomatoes and scaled everything way day. It's not so much of a measuring recipe as it is a guide.

10 ripe tomatoes (I used vine-ripened tomatoes)
4 ounces mozzarella cheese, cut into 10 pieces
1/4 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
Bunch of fresh basil leaves, torn
Salt and pepper

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees and spray a baking tray with cooking spray.

In each tomato, cut a deep X about halfway through the tomato. Push a piece of mozzarella into each X. Place the tomatoes on the tray and sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Bake in the oven for 25 minutes until the tomatoes start to soften and open. Remove from the oven, drizzle the olive oil and balsamic vinegar on top and serve.

Source: Easy Summer Food Cookbook

First of all, I'm loving the Olympics. I love watching everyone compete, and I love the sports. However, I think it's funny that the Olympics inspires people to sit on their couches and watch TV. I guess that I went for a bike ride this morning and stood in the kitchen all day, so that can justify me sitting around, drinking wine, and watching gymnasts and swimming tonight, right? By the way, what's up with the female gymnasts wearing scruncies circa 1995? Can't they do something else to give their hair some flair?

Anyway, this pasta has nothing to do with the Olympics other than I might eat this to carbo load before my triathlon next weekend...which still has nothing to do with the Olympics, but I'm excited about it. Almost ten years ago, I spent a lot of time in Grand Cayman. There was (is?) a restaurant on Seven Mile Beach called Cimboco that had great pizza and pasta. Consequently we ate there a lot. They had this great pasta dish called simple n light, and this is my attempt at recreating it. Spaghetti, olive oil, tomatoes, basil, garlic, feta, and parmesan. Like the name says, it's simple and light. And awesome. Maybe they should rename it.

Simple n Light Pasta 
Serves 4
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8 ounces spaghetti or angel hair pasta
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
1 large tomato, diced
5-10 basil leaves, diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
Salt and pepper, to taste
2 tablespoons feta
2 tablespoons freshly grated parmesan

Boil your pasta in salted water to al dente. Drain and set aside. Using the same pan, melt the butter over medium heat and add the olive oil. Put the diced tomato in and cook for about a minute until softened. Add in the garlic cloves and basil and cook for about 30 seconds until fragrant. Put the pasta back in the pan and toss until coated. Add salt and pepper to taste. Plate the pasta and sprinkle on the feta and parmesan before serving.  

Dish from Cimboco in Grand Cayman

If you're looking for ways to use up cucumbers from your garden, listen up...cucumbers, blueberries, cilantro, jalapeno, garlic, and olive oil. Interesting, right? We had our company BBQ a few weeks ago, and one of the girls brought this salad. I was intrigued by the combination of the seemingly strange combination of flavors, but it works. It's really refreshing, and it's a perfect summer salad. You can make it as spicy as you'd like--I used half of a seeded jalapeno and it wasn't very spicy. Next time I'd bump up the spice a bit. I recreated this based on what I tasted at the BBQ, but I googled it today and found it is a Rachel Ray creation. Her recipe has cumin in it, which I didn't use so I'll list it as optional. When I make this again, I'll try it with the cumin for some additional flavor. I have a sneaking suspicion that this would be great on some tortilla chips as a play on pico de gallo, but I forgot to try.  

Cucumber Blueberry Salad Recipe
Serves 4-6
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2 small/medium size cucumbers, peeled and sliced lengthwise
Salt
1 jalapeno, seeds and rib removed
1 tablespoon lime juice
1 clove garlic, minced
1/8 teaspoon cumin (optional)
2-3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 cup fresh blueberries
1/2 cup cilantro leaves

Once your cucumbers are peeled and sliced lengthwise, scrape the seeds out and cut into half moon slices. Season lightly with salt and set aside.
 
Give the cilantro a rough chop. Mince the jalapeno and combine it with the lime juice, minced garlic, 2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil, and cumin (if using). Add the sliced cucumbers, blueberries, and cilantro and toss to combine. If it looks dry, add the extra tablespoon of olive oil. Store in the refrigerator and serve cold. 

Adapted from Rachel Ray