A Holiday Treat: Pumpkin Pie Cake

At the end of every great holiday meal, there are guaranteed to be some great desserts.  This pumpkin pie cake is no exception.  Pumpkin pie cake is just like the classic pumpkin pie with a one big twist: the "crust" is on the top.  This cake is easy as pie to make, and you'll be making in time and time again.

Chicken Enchiladas Smothered in 'Sour Cream' Sauce and served with Borracho Beans

This classic Mexican meal is a great addition to any day!  These delicious enchiladas that are filled with seasoned shredded chicken and topped with a tasty sauce, pairs wonderfully with borracho beans.  Both of these recipes come with their fair share of work, but the result is well worth it!

Secret Family Recipes: Manicotti

Manicotti has always been one of my absolute favorites!  Whenever my birthday rolled around, and my mom asked me what I wanted for my special dinner, I always picked manicotti.  Manicotti is such a classic Italian dish; pasta tubes filled with a savory cheese blend, smothered with rich, delicious tomato sauce.

Project Food Challenge: Margherita Pizza

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Off The Menu is very proud to present to you, our very finest culinary creation to date! The pizza pictured above is not any ordinary pizza, it's a very sastifying to the tenth degree Marghertia Pizza. Some of you may have adventured to try a Margherita Pizza and know that the texture and indgredients can surpass an ordinary pizza, no matter how good that pie may be. To be honest with you, we did not know if our special recipe would accomplish that but now it's safe to say, that it went above and beyond in doing that. It's definitely on our lunch or dinner menu for good and we feel like it will be on yours too. With that being said, we at Off The Menu would like to outline step by step and ingredient for ingredient, how you can make this exceptional Margherita pizza at home.

Sweet and Sour Pork

My absolute favorite dish to get at Asian restaurants is sweet and sour chicken or pork.  This sweet and sour pork is fairly easy to make, and it is definitely easy to eat!

Christmas in July: Who's Going to Bring The Fig Pudding?

When I asked my readers and facebook fans for suggestions on what to fill my Christmas in July menu with, Tess suggested fig pudding.  I have, of course, always sang along with the Christmas carol that mentions figgy pudding, but if you asked me what a figgy pudding actually consisted of, I couldn't have told you (without the obvious exception of figs.)  So, Tess' suggestion was a great one!  Not only is it a great Engish Christmassy dessert, but something new for me to make.  So, thank you Tess for the great suggestion.

Christmas in July: Apple-Cranberry Stuffing

I have always been a fan of the combination of apples and cranberries.  They're just so wintery.  And I do realize at 109 degrees outside, that this is most definitely not winter.  However, for the sake of Christmas in July, I shut my eyes, and pretend that its nice and cold outside.  I have made this stuffing once before.  When I was in college, I once asked, begged (I didn't have to do much in the way of begging,) my mom if I could make the Christmas dinner that year.  She told me that I could, and every thing that I made had apples involved in some way.

This delicious bread crumb stuffing is loaded with yummy apple pieces, cranberries, and sausage.  This side was a favorite of Chef Matt's.

Christmas in July--Reader Suggested Dish: Updated Version of Green Bean Casserole

Believe it or not, this is one Christmas dinner staple that I have never had before.  So, when I asked my wonderful facebook fans for their suggestions of dishes to make, Debbie suggested an updated version of the classic green bean casserole.  I have given this dish a slight twist by using apple juice, sauteed mushrooms, and fresh green beans, as well as a couple of updated ingredients.  This dish turned out wonderfully, and I will definitely be adding this delicious side to my holiday menu.  Thank you Debbie for such a great suggestion!

Stir-Fry With Tasty Homemade Teriyaki Sauce

You can't go wrong with a some good stir-fry.  Pair it with some dumplings, wontons, or egg rolls, and you've got yourself one great meal. Or one great meal evolves from another as I always like to say. This stir fry is evolved because this is actually an update on one of the first posts ever created on this blog! It was a stir fry that I used to eat in a previous life that used frozen veggies from a bulk wholesale place. I decided to dump the frozen veggies in place of choosing my own fresh (non frozen) produce to put in this stir fry. Not only that but the teriyaki sauce that we used before had HFCS. Needless to say, we axed that, in place of making our own without that unnecessary and unhealthy ingredient. After all, in a lot of cases making stuff from scratch is more cost effective anyway. The results are day and night over that instant stir fry we made before.

Seriously Funny Sounding Dishes: Toad In The Hole

Today I've decided to introduce a new a category of posts to this site I call a food blog. "Seriously Funny Sounding Dishes" it will be called. That's because if you're like me, you may have always wondered what dishes like, "Toad In The Hole" in the were.

Now, you're in luck because occasionally we might post a "Spotted Dick" or a variation of. Not today though because up to bat right now is one I know I've always wondered about. It's the one and only Toad In The Hole hailing all the way from our friends across the sea, none other than the English. It is very English indeed, from Yorkshire to be exact. There's apparently some history to this dish as it goes all the way back to 1861 and no there are no toad parts in this dish so you can all breathe a sigh of relief. Although, truth be toad.. (forgive my crazy sense of humor) those sausages in the batter could almost be mistaken for a toad. Without further ado I present to you the recipe for Toad In The Hole.

Chicken Juliette

Recently, I went to a Italian restaurant, and got this amazing dish consisting of a delicious ragout on top of grilled chicken and goat cheese mashed potatoes.  I loved this dish so much, that I did something that I normally am not able to do, I completely cleaned my plate.   In the following weeks, I literally was dreaming about having this meal again.  That was not a very realistic dream seeing as this dish was 1) on the pricier side, 2) only available for a limited time.  So, I headed on over to my local Whole Foods and got everything that needed.  I made this yumminess on a plate for Chef Matt's Birthday, and at the end of the day, he told me that my dinner was the highlight of his day; that's quite a compliment!

Greek Pizza: An Explosion of Tastes

 This rich and decadent pizza is a beautiful symphony of delicious flavors.  This extra crispy pizza crust is topped with feta cheese, spinach, kalamata olives, sun-dried tomatoes, red onions, and marinated chicken. Your taste-buds are in for a wonderful surprise!

The pizza crust in this recipe is different from the crust included in my Pizza Night recipe.  My previous dough recipe is a great quick dough recipe that can be ready to bake in as little as 40 minutes.  The recipe below is thinner and crispier.  It does require that the dough be left in the refrigerator over night. 

Healthy But Satisfying: Turkey Tacos

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Turkey tacos are a favorite go to meal in this house, and they always satisfy, no matter how many times we have it.  Seriously, I make these every week, and they are always so yummy!  These tacos are delicious, and as an added bonus, they are healthier for you too. My secret is that I use ground turkey in place of ground beef.  I have been making slight adjustments to my seasoning technique since my college days, and I have finally reached perfection.

Also to make it healthier, (and better for the pocketbook) I have kicked the canned re-fried beans to the curb.  My signature beans are not fried, and they are packed with flavor!

You Can Never Go Wrong With Cabbage Burgers

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Cabbage burgers bring me back to my childhood.  My mother used to make them all of the time.  Well, she'd make them every once in a while, but when she did make them, she'd make a ton of them, then she would put lots in the freezer.  We'd just pop them in the oven whenever we wanted to have cabbage burgers for dinner.  These delicious packets are quite time consuming, so that it why my mother would make a lot of them at one time.

Project Food Challenge: Shrimp Pad Thai

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I made this meal at the request of Chef Matt, he simply loves pad thai, and he wanted to see if I was able to replicate one of his favorites at home.  To my surprise, I got two thumbs up!  I was shocked that I was able to do as well as I did on my very first attempt at this noodly dish.  Previous to making this dish, I had never been crazy about pad thai; I just wasn't giving it enough of a chance.  I loved every single bite!     The wonderful pallet of flavors in the sauce, the crisp carrots, the delicious shrimp... it all made my taste buds so happy.  This recipe is definitely a keeper!

Project Food Challenge: Egg Rolls

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Egg rolls that aren't made from fresh ingredients (e.g. frozen egg rolls) taste that way: not fresh and manufactured.  I've never been a huge fan of egg rolls , and the reason is that I never really had one that was that fresh or made correctly.  This past weekend I tried my hand at making these fried rolls of goodness, and I must say, they were delicious.  They have been something that has always been on my culinary 'to-do' list for quite some time now.  I've always been somewhat intimidated by the huge list of ingredients and all the steps involved.  But as I completed this task, I learned that I don't really have any reason to fear this crispy side dish.  I will explain every step so that you too can make egg rolls that are savory and packed with so much flavor that you'll never settle for frozen again.