rosemary

Rosemary Garlic Butter Smashed Potatoes

This hybrid of roasted and mashed potatoes is literally a mash up of cooking techniques to create a creamy potato on the inside with the crispy edges everyone craves on the outside, and it’s all made extra good thanks to garlic, butter and rosemary flavored smashed potatoes.

Easy side dishes should be a dime a dozen but I keep hearing from you guys that this is one of the most challenging parts of putting the finishing touch on your dinner time meal.

The beauty of a simple side dish like potatoes is they go with pretty much any main dish. Personally, I could eat them as the main dish all on their own.

So why mash when you can smash?

Because smashed red potatoes that are crisped with garlicky butter and rosemary like these smashed rosemary garlic potato babies here are the sure cure for your dinner-finishing cravings.

continue to the recipe… about Rosemary Garlic Butter Smashed Potatoes

Killer Garlic Fries with Rosemary

This copycat recipe of the famous Gordon-Biersch garlic fries couldn’t be easier to make at home, and because they can be baked in the oven or the air fryer, they’re a healthier version, too.

This recipe is brought to you by Alexia Foods

At first I didn’t even see them. I could just smell them. The punch to my olfactory sense with their intoxicating aroma literally had me twisting in my seat, cranking my head like Linda Blair in the Exorcist, searching for where that heavenly scent was coming from.

Ahhh, garlic. And loads of it. It was like the perfume of the food Gods.

This was many years ago at an L.A. Lakers game, and someone a row behind me and a few seats down was busy digging into what I soon discovered as the famous Gordon-Biersch garlic fries.

I’d never even heard of Gordon-Biersch before, but that certainly didn’t stop me from seeking out the concession stand where my husband and I joyfully purchased a few frosty beverages and our first batch of garlic fries that what would later become our Laker-game-going ritual.

But the best part of this story is that you don’t need to wait ’til game day to make this copycat recipe for Gordon-Biersch garlic fries at home. And even better, I’ve made them healthier by skipping the deep fat fryer and added even more flavor with a hint of fresh, herby rosemary, because that’s just the way I do.

continue to the recipe… about Killer Garlic Fries with Rosemary

Pesto Pizza with Balsamic Chicken and Peaches

This pizza gets its savory wings thanks to a fresh, green pesto and thinly sliced balsamic chicken that goes with summer’s best, sweet peaches and provolone to create a pizza that’s worth every bite.

With peaches at their peak, there’s plenty of ways to savor them besides smoothies (although this one is GRAND), my grandma’s peach and blackberry cobbler, and even as a balsamic-ed topping for grilled pork chops.

But one of my new favorite peach recipes comes from FoodieCrush contributor Hayley of the blog Seven Day Weekend. She sent me this recipe a year ago, and with seasonal peaches in their prime, it’s due time she shares it with you too. Take it away Hayley!

There are very few things I could eat every day without getting tired of them. Pizza is one of those foods, only I don’t eat it every day, because unfortunately I don’t have the resilient and forgiving metabolism of Chrissy Teigen (and her cookbook is great!).

For a long time now, my go-to pizza toppings have been pepperoni, mushrooms, and green peppers. But that’s comfy pizza—the kind you eat too many slices of, in your pajamas, on the couch, after a long day. Or even more likely, after a long night.

When I want fancy pizza though, I always welcome deviations. I try to embrace what’s in season. Sometimes it’s a white pie with bacon, potatoes, Swiss chard, and rosemary in the fall, or garlicky, lemony roasted broccoli with Italian sausage and goat cheese in the winter.

But one of my favorite slices is a summery one, inspired by a pizza I had several years ago at a cute little café in Raleigh, N.C., called Zest.

continue to the recipe… about Pesto Pizza with Balsamic Chicken and Peaches

Rosemary Flatbread with Baked Goat Cheese

Store-bought naan is the shortcut for perfect flatbread and easy dipping in this savory, creamy goat cheese appetizer with roasted vegetables.

Sure, I like to cook. What would a food blogger be who didn’t?

But, like any good cook I also like to eat out, and besides my tried and true family favorites, that’s where I find a lot of my recipe-creating inspiration. It’s where pro chefs test out their culinary chops and people like us get to reap the benefits. And steal a few ideas too.

This flatbread recipe is a riff on a menu item at one of Salt Lake City’s most popular, tried and true restaurants, Café Trio. It’s a popular spot for ladies who lunch (and drink wine), bridal parties and baby showers, just like the virtual bridal shower we’re having today to celebrate the soon to be first baby toes arrival for the lovely Joanne of the food blog Fifteen Spatulas.

Café Trio is what you’d find listed in restaurant directories as “casual fine dining.” Pastas, salads, thin crust pizzas and sandwiches all with an upscale twist.

The restaurant has been around for over 20 years and this flatbread appetizer has never left the menu. After eating it over and over lo’ these many years, it’s obvious why.

continue to the recipe… about Rosemary Flatbread with Baked Goat Cheese

Charred Corn with Rosemary Grilled Pizza and Crushing On Naturally Ella

Sweet grilled corn, fresh rosemary, mozzarella and gorgonzola mingle together on an easy homemade pizza dough that’s grilled for maximum flavor and a perfect char.

There was a spate of about 6 months when I went vegetarian. My reason? I was in hopes of gaining clarity and focus on how my body felt and how my mind clicked. Paying attention to what goes into my body and how it affects me on every level was great place for me to start.

I’m not sure that I remember what bumped me off the vegetarian train. Most likely I was lured by something from the grill that I’d simply been missing on my plate and far from the fresh flavors of this charred corn grilled pizza recipe I’m sharing today.

Since then, my habit of eating more greens and whole foods going strong and thus, I follow a lot of food bloggers who espouse the vegetarian lifestyle.

One of those bloggers is Erin Alderson, the whole foods force behind the vegetarian blog Naturally Ella and the author and photographer of The Easy Vegetarian Kitchen.

So how did Erin find her vegetarian roots? It came down to a life changing event when her father suffered a massive heart attack. Discovering this was a path that ran in her family,Erin began questioning her own eating habits and her road to vegetarianism—and her food blog—began.continue to the recipe… about Charred Corn with Rosemary Grilled Pizza and Crushing On Naturally Ella

Pomegranate Martini Recipe

This adaptation of Oprah’s Pomegranate Martini has a hint of rosemary and real pomegranate seeds for an added dose of festive flavor.

Are you a garnish-er, or a garnish-less?

I think it’s pretty evident by the looks of the recipes I post on this old bloggity blog that I’ve become a garnish-more type of gal. You may say YAY!, you may say EW!, but either way, the garnish is my go-to, and not quite shockingly, cocktails have yet to escape my embellishing.

A dip of gold sugar here, a drop or two of fresh pomegranates there and a stir stick that’s fresh and fragrant are what make my seasonal Pomegranate Martini totally festive and bright.

continue to the recipe… about Pomegranate Martini Recipe

Balsamic and Honey Chicken Skewers and Introducing Hatchery

It’s time. It’s time to put the slow-cooker in the basement and scrub up the grill. It’s time to break out the tongs and sing M-A-R-I-N-A-D-E in falsetto. People, it’s officially summer. People, it’s time to grill.

I should preface this post with the fact that: The grill is never a one man show.

There’s a lot more than you think that goes into a great grilled meal. There’s the grill > That’s key.

The griller > He’s the secret ingredient. And to any ingredient > there’s always a secret.

And the inspiration for my Balsamic and Honey Chicken Skewers recipe > it was delivered to my door.

continue to the recipe… about Balsamic and Honey Chicken Skewers and Introducing Hatchery

Slow Cooker Balsamic Chicken

When I received an S.O.S. comment on Facebook from one of my favorite readers, Maribel, I put on my thinking cap and went straight into action.

With Christmas Eve approaching in just a wink of an eye, Maribel commented that she was in need of a recipe that had enough style to impress at the holiday dinner table.

But there was one condition. The main dish had to be cooked in a slow cooker.

See Maribel doesn’t have an oven. No, I don’t know why—I’m fantasizing it’s because she’s either in the midst of an amazing kitchen remodel or lives in a teepee fashioned with an es long extension chord to a chugging generator or possibly just doesn’t believe in the clutter an oven adds to her kitchen?

continue to the recipe… about Slow Cooker Balsamic Chicken

Red Potato, Sausage and Rosemary Fontina Pizza and a Farm Tour

Farm Cred. Yep, I got it. I earned it. Farm credibility.

I dug up potatoes, I rode in a John Deere tractor. I tasted a potato chip made from a batch of potatoes that would later that day become a Classic Lay’s Potato Chip to be shipped to a store for happy snackers to munch on the very next day.

I thought that was you.

And I dreamed about ways to cook, bake and eat red potatoes. Like in a potato and sausage pizza.

The only thing I didn’t do on my trip to Black Gold Farms was leave a high school sweetheart broken hearted enough to write a good old country song about me. Maybe next time around.

Being a girl from Utah, you’d think that at some point during my years I’d have crossed the state line to Idaho to partake of potato digging there. I must admit, as my neighboring state, I’ve always thought potatoes were farmed pretty much exclusively in I-da-hoe.

Oh no. Not so my friends.

I discovered this truth when I was getting dirty in Missouri with a group of other friendly food bloggers, in the potato fields worked by the 4th generation, family-owned and operated Black Gold Farms.

Founded 85 years ago by Hallie Halverson and now run by his children and their children, Black Gold Farms is the largest supplier of potatoes to the largest potato chip company in the U.S., Lay’s Potato Chips.

Black Gold Farms also provide table-stock potatoes, the kind you see at the grocery store, the beautiful little red potatoes that are so amazing roasted or boiled and coated in butter.

Or sliced paper thin and layered on pizza with sausage and rosemary. That’s the real deal.

continue to the recipe… about Red Potato, Sausage and Rosemary Fontina Pizza and a Farm Tour

Lemon and Cherry Mini Bundt Cakes

My fetish with lemons has yet to recede or fade to the background. But it is sadly digressing fast. And I’m blaming my supplier. My supplier who has created a habit that will be hard to break, and who is breaking it for me, against my will.

Think of me as the Lindsay Lohan of the lemon world. Rehab, here I come.

I’m so sad to see my Meyer lemon train making it’s final stop at my beloved Costco. Costco has been the key ingredient in keeping my overwhelming love and sense of tartness in the front seat of my recipe list that has included both savory —Meyer Lemon Fettuccine—and sweet—Meyer Lemon Tart.

Lemons are making way for sweet strawberries and skinny asparagus, which will soon enough pass the favorite ingredient hat to home-grown tomatoes, jalapeños and the plethora of zucchini.continue to the recipe… about Lemon and Cherry Mini Bundt Cakes

Sausage and Marsala Pappardelle Pasta

We all have our favorite recipes. And we all have vices. This recipe combines the best (best?) of both of them in my little world.

I’ve been sitting on this recipe ever since I started blogging. It’s one of those recipes I make it at least once a month, a favorite staple in our house and one I break out when company shows up unexpectantly because I always have the ingredients on hand.

But because it’s such a favorite for dinner, it’s usually dark by the time I’m done cooking and we’re hungry and there’s no light to take a pretty picture or any pasta left anyway. Oh, the life of a food blogger, balancing hunger pains of the family for you my lovely readers.continue to the recipe… about Sausage and Marsala Pappardelle Pasta

Meyer Lemon Fettuccine and 10 Favorite Lemon Recipes

The sunny skies of California made me want to do it.

Before I moved to the big lights and bigger stars land of L.A., I was a Utah girl, born and bred. So when the opportunity to leave my home state appeared, sure, I had a couple of romantic thoughts about what it would be like to live in the golden state, where dreams are big and sometimes come true.

There I was, the classic wanna be L.A. cliché.

Let’s see if the sugarplums of your California dreaming jive with mine. continue to the recipe… about Meyer Lemon Fettuccine and 10 Favorite Lemon Recipes

Fig Spread and Cheese Crostini Appetizer + Korin Giveaway

Are you tired of me saying it yet? Talking about how much I adore salty paired with sweet? I hope not, because you’re in for a big dose of it today.

This past weekend we made our way to our friend’s annual holiday company Christmas party. No, I’m not moonlighting on the side for their business—Lord knows I’ve tried—but we’ve been really good friends for a few years and somehow we’ve weaseled our way into getting an invite each year.

Maybe it’s because we’re helpers in the kitchen—during that last minute flurry of panic before the guests start rolling in, lending a helping hand. But since they always have it so well put together, I think its just because we are so much dang FUN! And these guys, well they go all out so it definitely isn’t a chore to whoop it up and have a good time.

This year I was asked to give my opinion on the menu. Now, Sherrie is an amazing cook and party giver, so she really doesn’t need any help from me. But since I’m a bone fide food blogger (ahem, cue smoke and mirrors) people seem to think I know what works when it comes to food.continue to the recipe… about Fig Spread and Cheese Crostini Appetizer + Korin Giveaway

Friday Faves and Balsamic Skirt Steak Salad with Stone Fruit

I just stepped out of the orchard. No, I mean literally, I just stepped out of the orchard.

Today I stepped out of a van, into a picturesque Oregon orchard, to photograph, gawk and fondle some of the world’s most coveted pears and peaches grown and harvested by gifting company Harry & David. But more of that to come in a future post…

Ironically I had planned on posting this recipe before I actually visited the orchards, but I’m realizing the visit must have been on my mind when I started craving this salad since the nectarines have been ripening on my kitchen counter for the past week.

Some things happen for a reason. Right?

But first let’s talk about some of my Friday Favorites, stuff I’ve been crushing on this week via the www…

continue to the recipe… about Friday Faves and Balsamic Skirt Steak Salad with Stone Fruit

Friday Faves and Grilled Peaches with Mascarpone Cheese

Soon I’ll be heading north. Not for the great white chill of Alaska, but to Northern Utah for Peach Days.

Peach season is right around the corner, and I can’t wait to hand-pick some big old juicers from the roadside fruit stand to take home and throw on the grill for my easy Grilled Peaches with Mascarpone. Dessert on the grill, can’t get easier than that.

Caramelized goodness with a touch of honey and rosemary. Mmmm hmm.

But until I load the car, gas it up and make the jaunt, I’ll share a few Friday Faves with ya’ll.

1. There were a few tips I learned of at the Evo Conference that didn’t make my recap post. One is this great app called CardMunch. Take a pic of a business card and all of the info is directly imported into your contacts or LinkedIn account.

The other is an iPhone photo editing app. Yes, yet another one to add to the arsenal. Snapseed is from one of my favorite image editing companies, Nik Software and got a lot of tongues wagging at Evo with all of us iPhone picture taking hounds comparing whose editing with what. It’s also available on the iPad.

2. I’m going to be flying my red, white and blue colors high at the Olympic Opening ceremony. I don’t know how they could top the Beijing opener, but I’m hoping London will pull out all their star power and wow the world. I’m looking at you Posh! I think this sweet USA red, white and blue treat is perfectly in order to enjoy as I sit on the couch and watch the athletes sweat it. Get the complete 2012 Summer Olympic schedule here.

3. Check out this Pinterest board featuring food bloggers tomato recipes in support of the movement to purchase for slave free tomatoes.

4. In an effort to keep up with my myriad of RSS feeds, I’m checking out Evernote Clearly to use with my favorite browser, Chrome, that promises to make blog posts and webpages easy to read with customized font selection and themes. Check it out and let me know what you think.

5. And finally, I’m thinking about making this for a blogger potluck, to quench the thirst of those talkie, eating food lovers.

Thanks for reading and please keep in touch. Subscribe to Foodie Crush and follow me onTwitter, Facebook and Pinterest and check out Foodie Crush magazine and Cookie Cravings cookbook.

Brined and Grilled Pork Loin Roast with Balsamic and Raspberry Chili Glaze

This week has definitely been one for the record books.

Thank you, thank you for all of your amazing support of—and eyeballs on—the launch of the Summer 2012 issue of FoodieCrush magazine. Your comments through the blog, on Twitter and Facebook reinforce my belief that there IS an audience that loves food bloggers, their recipes and photography and you too want to know more about these talents beyond their blogs.

Please don’t stop learning about these bloggers after you click close on the magazine. Visit their blogs and let them know you’re there with a simple comment, a wave or a shout and let them know you like them and their work.

One of the articles I was most excited to share is the Boys of Summer feature, featuring some of the best boy bloggers on the web aka Verses From My Kitchen, The Sophisticated Gourmet, SippitySup, Closet Cooking, A Thought for Food and Eat the Love, to give them some man-love-food props and strut their boy food stuff. I keep thinking they would make an amazing boy band, I’d be a groupie for sure.

There are so many amazing food bloggers on the www. I swear I have enough content to publish a new issue every week. Hey, that might be something to aspire to right?

So getting another issue of FoodieCrush out the door. Whew. That was a big deal.

And another big deal happened for me too, something some of you may have seen a mention of on Twitter or Facebook.continue to the recipe… about Brined and Grilled Pork Loin Roast with Balsamic and Raspberry Chili Glaze

Sweet Pear and Rosemary Honey with Havarti Grilled Cheese

Grilled Cheese Sandwiches. They’re not just for lunch anymore…and National Grilled Cheese Month continues.

This past weekend was a rainy one, where the clouds hugged the mountains and raindrops fell in sideways sheaths thanks to the whipping wind and fast moving storm. There is pretty much nothing I like better than a rainstorm, except for a thunderstorm. Or an epic snowstorm. Cocooning. That’s my idea of a good day.

With Smudge’s soccer game cancelled we had an unexpected opportunity to slow down from our regular weekend schedule filled with postponed errands, playdates and soccer games. Yep, the life of a parent is rarely your own. But its pretty damn awesome.

It was too wet to wander out for brunch, so we were definitely eating at home. And what did Smudge request? Grilled cheese. I don’t know why I was surprised—what kid doesn’t request grilled cheese as their go-to meal? But for breakfast?continue to the recipe… about Sweet Pear and Rosemary Honey with Havarti Grilled Cheese