Cooking Classy

I can't believe I've had this blog for nearly 10 months and I haven't posted one waffle recipe yet! Breakfast foods are some of my favorites to make (and blog) so I can't tell you why I've waited until now to do a waffle post.  In my home I make pancakes and french toast more often than waffles and I think one reason I prefer to do so is because with Belgian waffles you can only make one at a time. With pancakes and french toast I can make like 6 at a time. I've been wanting to buy one of the Belgian waffle irons that cooks two at a time. I have a long list of kitchen gadgets I want, you'd think the list would get shorter as I get more things but it just gets longer. I don't get into fancy clothes and home decor just fancy kitchen accessories =). I'm running out of kitchen storage space. Anyway, thanks to this recipe I know waffles are going to make their way into my home far more often, even if it means cooking one at a time until I get a double Bel

Okay so, I wrote a long post about the pure amazingness of this salmon then I went to cut and past it below the photo and forgot to paste it, posted it and lost my "paste." Yeah the most frustrating and stupid thing ever! I hate when that happens! Oh well, moving on =)... I'm going to be a little lazy about it and just tell you, you need to try this salmon! It is really the best salmon I have ever eaten! I saw this recipe over Epicurious, from Gourmet Magazine. I will be honest, Gourmet Magazine is sometimes too "gourmet" for me. Their version of this however looked awesome! Simple yet incredible. I created my own version by jazzing it up to suit my taste. Rather than grilling it I pan seared it, obviously. I wanted a tiny bit of sweet to balance out the citrus-y tang so I added honey, and what better way to get that perfectly golden brown, crisp crust then to pan sear it along with a little sprinkling of flour? I also thought if you're going to make butter

Oreos, one of life's simple pleasures. Oreos can give any dessert an instant upgrade. I love love love them. One of my all times favorite desserts is Cookies and Cream Ice Cream (with Cold Stone's Sweet Cream of course). That crisp, chocolate cookie with rich, sweet cream combination is a match made in Heaven. When I saw these cupcakes over at Beantown Baker I knew I had to try them. That ice cream deliciousness in cupcake form. Yes! "Please! Please! Gimme, Gimme, Gimme. I need, I need, I need!"( What About Bob , one of my favorite movie's and quotes =). I made a few small changes to the recipe, I didn't think 1 stick of butter was quite enough moisture for 24 cupcakes so I added in 1/3 cup sour cream and reduced the amount of milk slightly, then increased the baking powder just a tad. Other minor changes I made were, I didn't use room temperature egg whites and I didn't add the 2 tbsp flour to the chopped Oreos because I cut mine into small pieces s

My all time favorite dressing is Old Spaghetti Factory's Creamy Pesto Salad dressing. I've made  my own copycat version  so I can enjoy it at home all the time. It is definitely a family favorite. Not only do I dress my salad with it but I use it the same way you'd use ranch, for example, to dip fries or pizza in or to drizzle over baked potatoes. When I serve it alongside a breaded chicken I always end up dipping my chicken in it too. That is why I decided just to create a recipe that incorporated it right in from the start rather than just dipping it. This is similar to a baked ranch chicken only with a Pesto salad dressing and some Parmesan instead of ranch dressing. Technically it should probably be called Crispy Pesto  Dressing  Parmesan Chicken (because it doesn't use pesto, but rather pesto dressing) but that's far to long so I went with the shorter version. This chicken is so flavorful and delicious! I love the flavor of basil and it works wonders to this ch

Is there anything that can replace a fresh, homemade cookie warm out of the oven? Cookies are my weakness in life. Let me rephrase that, cookies are one of my many weaknesses in life. Seriously, why do they have to be so good? If they tasted horrible it would be so much easier to never eat them, but they taste amazing so I can't help but always eat them far too often. That is one reason though that I try create my favorite version of different kinds of cookies. I'm not a very picky eater but I think I know food can be labeled from awful, to bad, to acceptable, to decent, to good, to delicious, to unforgettably extraoridnary. I always am for the unforgettably extraordinary, though I know I wont always achieve it, it pushes me to make things better. I think I also know the difference between an okay cookie and a perfect cookie.  Let me tell you how I would describe the perfect Snickerdoodle. Where to start? Cinnamon, a must. But, almost always when I add cinnamon I like a little

  Let me state things plainly, you are going to want to make this pie =). It is one of the easiest and tastiest pies I've ever made. I adore cream puffs. Basically I could eat about 20 or more in one sitting (if I didn't exercise any self control). So, when I saw   this cake , and noticed how many of the reviewers had made a pie version of it I knew I had to give it a try. I don't want a little wimpy piece of cake I want a big slice of pie! I'm so glad I tried this pie. I like it equally as much, if not more than cream puffs.  I used a different pastry cream than that listed on the original recipe. I like to call it "cheaters pastry cream" because it is made from a boxed pudding mix. It's not often I use mixes when I cook and bake but in this case, for pastry cream, I love to. It always guarantees the perfect consistency, a great texture, and I also like how it's just a bit sweeter than your average pastry cream that's made from scratch. I don'

Yesterday I posted an Authentic Italian Meat Spaghetti Sauce so today I wanted to post a vegetarian Italian pasta dish. Trust me though you don't need to be vegetarian to fully appreciate this pasta.  I didn't know exactly what kind of pasta I wanted to make, and then I realized I had some lemons I needed to use up while they were still fresh. Also, browned butter is a great way to add flavor to simple dishes so I decided why not combine the lemon with some browned butter. They seem as though they were made to go together. The great thing about this pasta is that it's elegant, full of fresh flavor, incredibly simple and it can be made in 15 minutes. Have guests over and impress them with this delicious, flavorful pasta. No one needs to know how easy it was =). Enjoy! Who knew almonds made such pretty little flowers... Browned Butter Lemon Pasta Yields about 3-4 servings Ingredients: 1/4 cup butter 2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil 2 cloves garlic, finely minced 1/2 - 1 tsp lemo

Do you want to mimic at home that amazing meat sauce they make in the Italian restaurants? Well look no further =). In my opinion I think there are a few key steps in creating that authentic, thick, richly flavored, meaty sauce. I've learned a few things trying to imitate that amazingly delicious pasta sauce that I get at a few of my favorite Italian restaurants. One of them being, you need to cook the sauce low and slow, 5 hours minimum. If you want great sauce you're going to have to have a little patience. This is one of those made with love recipes =). I think Roma tomatoes are best. A few weeks ago I made a similar sauce, entirely from scratch. I'm talking fresh Roma tomatoes, boiled, peeled, seeded and crushed them. It took far too much time and effort only to realize the next time around canned Roma tomatoes were better. They don't seem as acidic. The flavors of the fresh basil and parsley in this recipe lend it fresh from the garden flavor. I didn't want to

Okay, so this is officially the longest post I think I've ever done. It's taken a few days for this one and I've been thinking of what I'd put in these Cinnamon Rolls for a long time . I've been wanting to create my own cinnamon roll recipe for months and yesterday I finally decided it was time. So, let me explain a few things. The first batch I made was delicious but I knew it could be just a bit better. It was flavorful, tender, moist, fluffy. Basically it had nearly everything I could ever ask for from a cinnamon roll, except they just weren't big and grand enough. So today I woke up bright and early and made a second batch, and in my opinion, perfected them. Words nearly can't describe the goodness of these cinnamon rolls. I have never sunk my teeth into a cinnamon roll so good. I'm sorry, I know that sounds SO bragish but it is true. This is what I work for. These are why I love my job. I get to wake up and create something delicious, then slowly sa

A healthy breakfast smoothie that tastes like dessert, I will take one of each flavor please. I'm a firm believer that healthy foods don't need to taste like cardboard, indeed they can be just as delicious as their unhealthy competitors. I don't know if I've mentioned before but I always like to have a healthy, low calorie breakfast and lunch, then at dinner I splurge a little and always have dessert. I exercise 6 days a week because I think it's a good balance for me. I watch Food Network while I run on the treadmill, it always keeps me going =). For breakfast I try to keep it around 300-400 calories 6 days a week (every Sunday I make a big brunch and splurge), so I like to have banana oatmeal, whole grain cream of wheat, whole grain cereal with almond milk or these smoothies with almond milk. Yes, I've made the change over to almond milk. I didn't believe it when I heard some random fact of how many people prefer the taste of almond milk to milk until I tr