Tag Archives: cheese

Bacon, Heirloom Tomato, and Grilled Cheese Sandwich

Posted on February 24, 2014 by spenkunas

While at the grocery store, I zeroed in on an heirloom tomato display. I knew I wanted to purchase one, but wasn’t sure what I wanted to make. I thought about my favorite ingredients – bread, cheese, tomatoes – and decided to make my version of a BLT…minus the “L”. Grabbing a loaf of artisan piccolo bread, 2 different cheeses, and bacon, I headed home to cook. I sliced the bread into hearty slices and drizzled with olive oil. I pan seared them and then added some fig balsamic. Next step- cheese! I shredded the main cheese called Ruth Kase Grand Cru (which is a cow’s milk cheese made in Wisconsin and melts wonderfully). On top, I shredded some pecorino with truffle to add a little flavor twist. Both cheeses topped the bread, followed by the heirloom tomato slices and bacon. I added a little cheese in between the layers to help “glue” the sandwich together and cooked in the pan until fully heated through. That little tomato inspired a delicious sandwich!

Ingredients:

Heirloom tomato
artisan bread
variety of cheeses (pick your favorites!)
bacon
olive oil
fig balsamic

Gathering the ingredients

Hearty slices

Adding the fig balsamic

Layer of cheeses

Heirloom tomato slices

Bacon!

Grilling it up – it may look burnt, but it’s just the fig balsamic

Ready to slice

Time to dine!

Crab Quesadilla

Posted on January 23, 2014 by spenkunas

I treated myself to a fresh Dungeness Crab for dinner the other evening. It was a really large crab, so I ended up with some delicious lump crab meat left over. Instead of making crab cakes, I decided to make a crab quesadilla. I mixed the lump crab meat with my favorite Mexican 2-cheese blend from Tillamook and added some chopped avocado. After heating the corn tortillas in a medium-hot pan, I added the crab mixture and topped with another tortilla. I flipped the quesadilla once to ensure the mixture was heated through and the cheese was melted. Placing the quesadilla onto a cutting board, I used a pizza cutter to slice it into quarters. The punch of the cheese paired nicely with the sweet crab and avocado. Delicious!

The ingredients

Mixing the crab, cheese, and avocado

Heating the tortillas

Adding the filling

Topping with a second tortilla

Ready to eat!

What did you do with all that turkey?

Posted on December 5, 2013 by spenkunas

Well, I looked at my turkey leftovers and decided to make a version of roll-ups. I believe the original recipe came from my Mom’s Welcome Wagon cookbook from Central Pennsylvania and was called “Chicken Roll-ups”. The original recipe uses chicken, cheddar cheese, crescent rolls, and cream of chicken or mushroom soup. I decided to take a Mexican twist on the original. I used turkey leftovers with a Pepper Jack/ Cheddar cheese and skipped the soup in favor of guacamole. How can you go wrong with dough, cheese, and turkey?