Every day needs a snack.

Sausage pinwheels

Goat cheese and craisin pinwheels

Spinach Artichoke dip

Wine

This spinach artichoke dip was a first for me

1. I used fresh spinach cooked down

2. I substituted mayo for some left over cream cheese

3. Alright there were only two changes

As always I add a little bit of fresh lemon juice and red pepper flakes to give the dip some "pop"

Cheers to a successful weekend!

Snack away!

Saturday, on the menu: Grilled Mustard Chicken with Fresh Corn Polenta

My favorite pescetarian and childhood friend, M.J. joined us for a suburban home cooked meal. Having been a vegetarian her whole life I felt the push for poultry may be a little much and instead embrace a no feet meat option.

Trimming a little fat.

When grilling I like to pound out the chicken so it cooks evenly

Medium rare steak = absolutely awesome

Medium rare chicken = salmonella poisoning

Let the marinating begin.

M.J.'s fish.

In college I spent a great deal of time on the Tucker family farm outside Lexington, KY. There we regularly ate grits, a dish I became accustomed to as a child being raised by midwest parents, but it was wasn't until the last few years that I embraced my love for polenta, the close family friend of the grit.

A great starch, that is easy to make, and easy to eat at any meal!

The recipe posted above calls for mascarpone cheese, not being mascarpone's biggest fan I substituted with some ricotta

and it worked out perfectly!

The chicken was grilled, the polenta was the right consistency, and dinner was served!

After our gluttonous dinner of steak and potatoes Mel and I opted to start our Saturday morning a little lighter.

I made some biscuits from a simple recipe I found on the back of a Bisquick box (slightly altered)

Put out blueberry and blackberry jam, fresh organic honey and cut up one of this season's most delicious peaches!

A nice way to jump start your day.

Hasselback potatoes with Spinach Chashew Pesto

Who doesn't like pesto?

Slicing the potatoes is the real trick

You need to make the slices deep enough to add garlic, but shallow enough that they don't split the potato

Slice.

Shove.

Roast.

As you can tell I lost the end of a potato due to sloppy knife work with a heavy hand.

Ahh kitchen lessons for the future.

1Tbl of butter on each: These are not diet baked potatoes, but they are delicious.

Indulge.

(I found this recipe from one of my favorite food bloggers, Joy the Baker be sure to check her out!)

The joys of cooking in a home home:

1. A grill

2. A dishwasher

3. More plates, bowls, platters, and serving utensils than I know what to do with

4. Fun kitchen tools I have not yet acquired

5.Dogs to help with the floor spills

With all these added amenities it was time to light up favorite option #1.

Grilled Steaks with Blue cheese and Chiles

And a glass of wine to get things started.

I love using fresh garlic and after watching my mom cook, and numerous cooking shows it's clear the best way to shell a clove is to crack it with the flat side of a knife. Done and done.

Everything in my parent's kitchen is labeled and re-bottled so ingredients are more manageable.

Large bottles of olive oil are transferred to smaller bottles with pour spouts, and as you'll see later, large bags of flour are sifted into easy to pour/measure and labeled containers.

It's an OCD cooks dream come true.

We let the steak marinate for about 5 hours, turning once at the 2.5 hour mark.

Next I worked on the blue cheese chile steak topper

I used fresh Boars Head blue cheese, and added an extra de-seeded jalapeno.

I like my steak medium rare but got distracted fighting off mosquitos, consequently leaving the meat on for a little longer than intended.

Mosquitos ruin everything.

The potato and steak were the perfect pairing and turned out to be quite a gluttonous start to our weekend in New Jersey.