gimme some oven

I once heard that just about any good salad can be turned into a pizza.  So I decided to give it a try!

I took some of my favorite greens (arugula), and paired them with two of my favorite P’s (prosciutto and pears), added in some red onions (which in my opinion are a “must” on just about any salad or pizza), and sprinkled on some oh-so-heavenly gorgonzola (or you could sub in blue or feta cheese).

My kind of ingredients for a good salad.

And now, definitely my kind of ingredients for a good pizza!!!

Oh my goodness.  This one was heavenly.  The ingredients of course paired perfectly together.  But I especially loved all of the great textures (especially the cooked, sweet pears) on the pizza!  I made mine sans sauce, with just some olive oil brushed on, which was also delightful.

I definitely recommend it!  Or would also encourage you to experiement on your own and try converting one of your favorite salads to pizza.  You might be pleasantly surprised!  :)

see recipe for pear, prosciutto, arugula & gorgonzola pizza

Happy New Year, everyone!!!

After a month of tons of amazing giveaways, I’m so excited to get back to sharing some great favorite with you!  And this first recipe definitely falls in that category.

For lack of a better name, this is pretty much my family’s favorite salad.  (And coming from a family of cooks who are far more talented than me, that means a lot!)  I absolutely love it.

What’s more, it’s one of those family recipes that immediately brings back fun memories — from my aunt serving it to our extended family every Christmas Eve, to my mom making it upon special request for my band in college whenever we’d swing through town, to now, great times shared whenever I make the salad for my friends.  It is definitely my version of comfort food.  And since it seems like everyone is currently in healthy-eating-resolution-season, there’s an added bonus that this comfort food happens to be a fresh salad!!

So read on to find out all of the “secret” family ingredients.  And cheers to a delicious new year ahead!

see recipe for our family’s favorite salad

Although so many of my favorite recipes from 2011 line up with your favorites, couldn’t resist posting some more recipes I adore that didn’t get quite as much traffic.  Surprisingly enough, some of these are a bit more healthy than the dessert recipe that get all of the attention online.  ;)

I’m already getting excited about new recipes to come in 2012, so stay tuned!

Happy New Year!!!

see recipe for MY top eleven of ’11

Holy smokes, friends.  I can hardly believe that another year of blogging has already gone by!

Between my crazy new schedule changing jobs, and putting a house up on the market and then moving, and a host of other crazy life changes…I feel like I’ve honestly done less cooking than ever this year.  But then when I took a look back at the past year of recipes, and all of your amazing, and oh-so-encouraging comments, I realize that somehow quite a bit of deliciousness did make it to the blog.  And now I’m hungry to remake each of these!!!

In all seriousness, though, a million thanks once again for being such wonderful readers and supporters of my little site!  You all are such a gift to me, and I love getting to be connected through the love we all share for great food.

So here are your top eleven favorites of 2011!  My personal favorites will be in a post to follow.  I wish you a wonderful new year full and many delicious new recipes to come!  :)

see recipe for YOUR top eleven of ’11