 Where are my fellow leftover eaters? My husband and I both work from home - he's in an office in the basement and I spend most of my days in our kitchen. Despite the hours each day that I dedicate to preparing food, I hardly ever stop what I'm doing in the middle of the day to prepare a gourmet lunch for us.🙅🏻♀️ The reality is that we rarely even eat our lunch in the same room during the week. The reality is that it's usually a race to see who gets the best leftovers first.😅 I think that most people have an unrealistic idea of how food bloggers eat. The truth is, most days I exist on leftovers from catering orders or my recipe failures as sustenance. I'm not complaining - I actually really enjoy taste testing recipes. I'm just trying to give you a glimpse into my reality that almost never involves me eating the picture perfect food that I post on my blog. It's mostly leftovers and mistakes for me.😂  Quick and easy is the name of the game to curb my mid day appetite which means grabbing something that I can warm in the microwave. This July heat has me wanting cool food instead of eating something warm for lunch though. For that reason, smoked chicken salad has been my go-to lunch this summer. It may not seem like a leftover but I've been smoking a lot of whole chickens this summer. I've used the meat for things like buffalo chicken macaroni and cheese and chicken calzones but I always end up with some extra chicken to use for my chicken salad. If you're a person who likes a lot of STUFF in their chicken salad, you might have to dress this recipe up a little.😅 My smoked chicken salad recipe is pretty basic and straight forward. I like my chicken salad plain - unless if I'm feeling fancy and then I sprinkle pistachios on top.😂 If you decide to add fruit or nuts, veggies or spice to my recipe - send me your creations, I'd love to hear your ideas.  Smoked Chicken Salad 1/2 cup mayonnaise 3 Tablespoons celery, chopped 3 Tablespoons dill pickles, chopped 2 scallions, sliced thin 4 teaspoons cider vinegar 4 teaspoon horseradish 2 teaspoons lemon juice 1 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon pepper 1/4 teaspoon cayenne 2 cups smoked chicken, shredded  Combine all ingredients. Cover and refrigerate for an hour.   Ciao!
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 It's World Chocolate Day!! Apparently I've been living under a rock because I just learned about World Chocolate Day this week!🍫🤣 I don't know if it's something that been added to the calendar relatively recently or if I was just unaware of it but I've gotta say - I'm here for it. Who doesn't love chocolate?🤷🏻♀️
I love chocolate so much that I don't think it shouldn't be exclusively served as an after dinner dessert. In my world, chocolate's a perfectly acceptable (and preferred) way to kick off my day too.😋 Delicious chocolatey, tuxedo muffin are what dreams are made of. These sweet chocolate tuxedo muffins are loaded with chocolate chips but balanced out with a swirl of tangy cream cheese filling. They're so good that you'll want to eat them as a dessert but since they're "muffins" - you can eat them for breakfast too. 😅  Tuxedo Muffins Cream Cheese Topping 8- ounce package cream cheese, room temperature ⅓ cup sugar ⅛ teaspoon salt 1 large egg 1 teaspoon vanilla extract ¼ cup flour Chocolate Chip Muffin ½ cup butter room temperature ⅔ cup unsweetened cocoa powder 1 cup sugar 2 teaspoons baking powder ½ teaspoon salt 2 teaspoons vanilla extract 2 eggs ¾ cup milk ⅓ cup sour cream 2 cups all-purpose flour 1 3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
 Ciao!
 Happy 4th of July!!!🇺🇸  Don't you love it when the 4th of July lands on a Friday?🎆 Whether you're working over the holiday or taking an extended weekend, I hope that all of my fellow Americans will find some time to celebrate this weekend.🇺🇸 As for me, I'm partial to barbecues with family and friends to celebrate Americas Independence.🌭🥧 Friday holidays are great for bonus day weekends but it also happened to be a very busy week for me so there was no time to make any holiday barbecue preparations.😟 Anyone else?💁🏻♀️ Not to worry - it's not to late to organize a festive holiday barbecue for today. Grilled Chicken with Peach Barbecue Sauce is one of my favorite last minute grill recipes.🍗🍑 No overnight marinating or lengthy prep work involved. Chances are, you've got most of the ingredients that you'll need already in your pantry. This bright summery barbecue sauce is quick and easy to whip up and it will make all your 4th of July barbecue dreams come true. 😅😋  Grilled Chicken with Peach Barbecue Sauce Sauce 1/3 cup ketchup 2 medium peaches, peeled and cut into chunks 3 Tablespoons Dijon mustard 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper 2 teaspoons brown sugar 1/4 teaspoon table salt 1/8 teaspoon allspice 1 teaspoon fresh grated ginger 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice 2 Tablespoons honey 1/2 teaspoon tarragon 6-8 chicken leg quarters Fresh Mint
Puree sauce ingredients in blender until smooth. Reserve 1 1/4 cups sauce in refrigerator.
 Serve with additional peach barbecue sauce and fresh mint.  Ciao!
 I've lived in the South for 20 years, where biscuits and sausage gravy is a breakfast staple. As a matter of fact, they're so serious about their biscuits here that there are are whole restaurants dedicated to biscuits - flying biscuits!! But at the risk of getting evicted from the South, I admit that I've never acquired a taste for them.😬 I think it's my Italian roots but I'll take a biscotti and a peppermint tea over biscuits and gravy any day. I get ostracized for not ordering biscuits and gravy but that's nothing compared to the looks I get from Southerners who find out that I don't drink caffeinated coffee either.😳☕️ I'd describe it as a look of shock with a hint of disappointment.😲😟😅 I'd say next to biscuits and gravy, coffee is the life blood of the South - something that I just don't understand during our hot, humid, tropical summers.🤷🏻♀️ I'm not opposed to the flavor of coffee, I actually enjoy a cup of decaf at the end of a meal. Trust me, I'm not here to take a stand against the coffee industry - I'm just a girl trying to limit her caffeine intake.
It probably seems like a conflict of interest for a girl who doesn't drink caffeinated coffee to develop a biscotti recipe that's chock full of energy boosting caffeine.🤷🏻♀️ Well, funny story. This is what happened when I decided make chocolate espresso biscotti to take on our vacation in a couple of weeks for the extreme coffee lovers in the family. Biscotti freeze really well so I figured I'd make them in advance and pack them in a cooler to transport. Fast forward to 9:00 one evening when I started making (and sampling) this recipe because as any good bakers knows, you have to taste the product along the way.👩🏻🍳😋 I had made some minor adjustments to the recipe during the process so I did quite a bit of sampling and it wasn't until I started speed vacuuming the house at 11:00 that night that I realized that I had accidentally over-caffeinated myself. 🤣 Note to self: Do not make Chocolate Espresso Biscotti if you want to go to sleep in the next 12 hours.😂 I don't know exactly how much caffeine is in each Espresso Chip Biscotti but I do know that they have a healthy dose of espresso powder and chocolate. Biscotti are usually meant to be dipped and enjoyed alongside your morning coffee, so just be aware that they do have a fair amount of caffeine in them even when not accompanies by coffee. You've been warned!😂 You might even skip the coffee altogether and be able to get your morning energy boost with just a couple of delicious, chocolatey, biscotti. It's too hot for coffee anyway.🤣  Espresso Chip Biscotti 2 cups flour ½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder 2 teaspoons instant espresso powder ½ teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate 8 Tablespoons butter, room temperature 1 cup sugar 2 large eggs 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips 2 Tablespoons cocoa nibs, coarsely ground
 Arrange on baking sheets and bake 15. minutes. Flip and bake another 15 minutes.  Ciao!
It's easy to celebrate him - he's funny and kind, ambitious and honest. He's also a fan of ice cream, cookies, pies, cakes, brownies - basically anything with chocolate or sugar.😂 He's doesn't discriminate when it comes to dessert. This year we celebrated his birthday a little early with homemade chocolate chip cookies. 🍪  This recipe was adapted from Seriouseats.com. Basically they did all the hard work to create this amazing cookie recipe and I tweaked it to fit my own taste.😂 I've learned that Chocolate Chip preferences are very personal. There are so many options: crispy, chewy, types of chocolate, nutty, or sprinkled with sea salt. My own personal opinion about what I think makes a great chocolate chip cookie might be very different from yours. It's the reason that I have so many chocolate chip cookies on my website.😅 If you're still on the search for your favorite, check this one out. It's definitely at the top of my list and a favorite of the birthday boy too.  Chocolatey Chip Cookies 16 Tablespoons butter 1 ice cube 2 cups flour 3/4 teaspoon baking soda 1 teaspoon table salt 3/4 cup sugar 2 large eggs 2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla 1/2 cup + 2 Tablespoons brown sugar 8 ounces semisweet chocolate, roughly chopped
 Bake 13-16 minutes at 325.  Ciao!
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