American

Sometimes you just need a good comfort food recipe… a recipe that is easy-to-make… and a meal that every member of your family will eat without complaints.  I’ve got one one those recipes for you: Beef and Bean Enchilada Casserole

This one is a simple one- rather than rolling the ingredients up into a corn tortilla, the ingredients are layered into the casserole dish instead.

This is a scrumptious pot roast and slightly different than my regular weeknight pot roast, which is yummy in its own right. For this one, I cooked it ahead of time, refrigerated it, then skimmed off the fat the next day and reduced the cooking liquid into a thick, rich sauce. I happened to have thrown in peppers and artichokes, but the additions are really secondary to the sauce itself. You could just take the traditional approach and throw in carrots and onions when you start the cooking process if you want to just keep it simple.

You can serve this garnished with chopped fresh parsley like they do at The Old Spaghetti Factory but I really don't think it needs it, it's more for looks. I would also say no salt is needed because the Mizithra brings enough salt to the dish. You could add in more fillers like roasted garlic, sauteed bread crumbs, fresh lemon juice/zest or fresh basil but really this meal is perfect with it's three simple ingredients. You can find Mizithra cheese in the specialty cheese section of most grocery stores (which is usually near the produce section) or at Greek specialty stores. This is comfort food at it's simplest and best. Some days you just need some delicious carbs. Enjoy!

This dip, I have been thinking about and was finally able to bring it to life.  You see, I love biscuits and gravy, but not always as a main course. I love serving fancy pancakes for brunch, but also want something savory in the mix. This kind of lets you have it both ways. You get to serve your awesome pancakes for the main course and this can be out when guests arrive! You can thank me later.

I made my donuts… just some easy baked ones based on one of my favorite recipes ever from Ashley (who also inspired these photos… duh), but you can just as easily purchase them… most likely at a drive-thru. Who invented donut drive-thrus? Like I seriously need to be LAZIER when I want to buy a donut. Please, let me sit in my car and wait for ten minutes instead of get five minutes of exercise and walk to get my donut. Good grief. How asinine.

It’s Friday. Eat a donut. Or better yet… drink it.

So, I sorta outdid myself here.
Yes, I’m patting myself on the back.
No, I don’t think that’s odd.
I made ice cream. From two ingredients. Without an ice cream machine.
I’ve seen Shelly mention that you can make ice cream from a pint of cream and a can of condensed milk, but when I went to my pantry I was out of condensed milk. Sad face!
What I did have, however, was a can of  dulce de leche.
Um, dulce de leche is just cooked sweetened condensed milk, right?
Let the experimenting begin!

PARTY. IN. YOUR. MOUTH.

Tell me this doesn’t just SCREAM “GAME DAY!!!!” I mean everyone serves some sort of buffalo dish for game day: buffalo wings, buffalo chicken dip, buffalo chicken pizza, buffalo chicken quesadillas… and now THESE little bites of goodness.

You’re man-friends will love you. Hubs couldn’t even speak, he was shoveling these in his face so fast!

So anyway, eating ice cream sandwiches in the fall is sort of the equivalent to wearing Uggs with shorts.  Except it works.
Trust me on this.
Ice cream is always in season.

Plus this ice cream is sandwiched between two buttery blondie bars and filled with Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups.
It’s a wonderful world.

Panzanella (Italian bread salad) is traditionally a summertime dish made with ripe tomatoes, but the premise of stale bread tossed with dressing and seasonal vegetables can be translated to any time of year. Here, roasted squash, toasted bread cubes, walnuts, and dried cranberries are coated with a roasted-garlic-and-shallot balsamic dressing for a wintry spin. Serve this hearty bread salad underneath a whole roasted chicken to sop up all the juices from the bird.

Mushrooms can be chopped with a knife. Alternatively, break them with your fingertips, or pulse them in a food processor. They should be chopped until no pieces larger than 1/4-inch remain.