Fancy Grilled Cheese

I searched for recipes and found a bunch of tasty looking ones but I decided to go easy on myself and throw together a tasty sandwich instead (maybe I'll still do one of those recipes before the month is over though!). This is a grilled cheese made with fake bacon, american cheese, tomato and basil. It was actually super fantastic and would have been even better on that white italian bread...yum...anyway, I've never actually used basil as anything other than a dried seasoning so this was pretty new for me!

Ravioli with Herbs

So we're back. This time we made the Ravioli with Herbs recipe found in the cookbook (pictured) that Jamie got Lisa for her birthday. There's fresh torn basil in it that's been wilted in a quick butter sauce. Seemed a shoo-in.




The verdict: tasty, mild, light. We'd have it again.

Basil Bread!

So we finally bought a KitchenAid stand mixer, and we christened it by making the "Basic White Bread" recipe in the cookbook that came with it. The only alterations were that we used soy milk instead of the lowfat milk the recipe called for, and we added about an eighth of a cup of chopped fresh basil to the dough. The bread is really good, and, in spite of the fact that it smells a lot like basil, it doesn't taste much like it. Still good though.

Raviolis!

Basil? Basil?! I don't tend to buy decoration for my food....but somehow I had this Mrs. Dash stuff and look- there's BASIL in it!

Insalata Caprese

This is the way Lisa makes her Caprese salad, a simple roma tomato-fresh mozzarella-fresh basil salad that we make for dinner around here about three nights a week. Yeah, it's indulgent. Yeah, fresh mozz is expensive (as is fresh basil, really), but we can't get enough. Lisa puts whole basil leaves on top of a bottom layer of the cheese, followed by the romas, then green onions, followed by garlic salt, fresh cracked black pepper, and dill. Me, I like it a bit more simple.



My caprese is a simple three layers--the cheese, the tomatoes, and a quick chiffonade of basil, which is just a fancy way of saying "ribbon-cut." It isn't pictured here, but I top this all off with a balsamic vinegar reduction, which you can get bottled in grocery stores (I prefer the "Gia Russa" brand). Black pepper doesn't hurt either.

We're pretty sure we've made this for all of you before, but, well, it has basil in it, so we thought we'd post it. More to come!

Basil!

This is Alex sitting in for Lisa, who insists I am her spokesperson. She kept asking me what the ingredient should be, but I told her to choose. Tonight she finally decided on basil as this month's ingredient. She instructed me to relay the following message: "I challenge you to not use basil merely as a garnish!" I would just add that pesto seems a little obvious. But, then, it's so tasty! I've also told Lisa that we should make multiple dishes to make up for our absence of late. We'll see about that. Okay--go!