When I was little, I used to hate goat cheese. It tasted so, for lack of a better word, weird. Now that I have a wider culinary palette and more sophisticated tastes (or so I hope), I try to incorporate goat cheese into more of my cooking.

In this pasta, the goat cheese flavor isn’t overwhelming, but it does make the dish nice and creamy and give it a unique taste.

To make enough pasta for two, you’ll need one baby eggplant, about 2 tablespoons of olive oil, one small onion, one large non-green bell pepper (or two small ones), two garlic cloves, 3 tablespoons of fresh basil or ½ teaspoon dried, ¼ teaspoon salt, ¼ teaspoon pepper, enough pasta for two, 1/3 cup dry white wine (optional), and 2 ounces of fresh goat cheese.

First things first: heat the oven to 375, and peel the baby eggplant. Slice it into ¼” half-moons. Rub the eggplant pieces with half the olive oil, and place them on a baking sheet. Bake 10-15 minutes, turn them over, then bake 10-15 more minutes. Read More »

This is one of my favorite meals of all time. It will impress the pants (hopefully) off of whomever you’re currently dating, and if you’re single, it will impress your own pants off yourself. No joke.

It’s easy to double or triple the recipe, so I’ll provide ingredients here for just one person. You need 1 cup of spinach (fresh, and optional), 1 tablespoon of olive oil, about ¼ cup chopped onion, a sprinkling of sugar, 1 minced garlic clove, 1 tablespoon of chopped sun-dried tomatoes (oil-packed or dry, it doesn’t matter), about 1 ½ tablespoons goat cheese, 1 tablespoon of chopped fresh basil or ¼ teaspoon of dry basil, a sprinkling of salt, and two chicken breast halves. You’ll also need a few toothpicks. Read More »

I am in love.

Well, sort of. This whole “love” thing tends to be a lusty daily occurrence anytime I see a man who is taller than me, has dark brooding eyes, sings, plays anything, or…cooks.

What can I say, I’m a lover.

Naturally when I stumbled upon The Amateur Gourmet’s site, the blogger turned FoodNetwork TV star, I was bitten by the smitten bug. To add to my profound love for this man, he created How-To’s like these:

How To Open A Wine When You Don’t Have A Corkscrew
How To Make Rice Pudding From Left Over Rice
How To Cure Hiccups

Obviously, he’s a man after my heart. Not to mention he’s full of wit, interesting blog posts AND RECIPES! (yippee)

Here’s one of my favorites for you all and I urge you to check him out!

PENNE WITH SPICY GOAT CHEESE AND HAZELNUT PESTO
(pasta is generally a food of choice for me because it’s simple): Read More »