mexican corn cakes with shredded pork

this dinner is saved for a saturday or sunday when you're more than willing to spend an hour in the kitchen. the components are simple to put together - boiled & broiled pork and cornmeal cakes topped with cheese, avocado, and homemade pico de gallo - which means this is a meal you can make while catching up on grey's anatomy, parks and recreation, or whatever else you have saved on the dvr, and not miss a beat.

and the flavors are exactly what i expected them to be: a nicely mexican flavored pork, a little crispy, a lot tender, topping a cornmeal cake studded with corn kernels and salty cheese. it's perfect for those times when you want mexican, but another taco or burrito won't cut it.

slow cooker bolognese

in the early 2000s, when i was still in college and for a few years after i graduated, i visited my good friend melina for a weekend each summer. i would make the drive from upstate new york down to new jersey and we would take the train into new york city for a day. each trip we would find something different to do during the day - visit the statue of liberty, walk through central park, see a concert at jones beach - but we always ended up in little italy for dinner and dessert. and each and every time, while i was scanning the menu for prosciutto, melina had her eyes on bolognese. i can't eat it without thinking about those trips and warm summer evenings eating outside along mulberry street.

secret recipe club: raspberry cream filled eclairs [12in2012]

cream puffs, profiteroles, eclairs - whatever you want to call them, they have been on my to make list for a while now. but as long as i've had them on the list, i've passed over them, thinking they're too hard to make. cooking a dough on the stove top and baking it? sounds like a recipe for disaster.

i couldn't have been more wrong! i got up one saturday morning, determined not to do anything else until i was biting into a cream filled eclair. one hour later, i was doing it. i couldn't believe how simple the dough was to put together, how easy it was to cook it on the stove top, and how delicious they came out! a big thank you to susie at sweetie petitti for giving me the confidence to tackle these little pastries for the secret recipe club.

pasta stuffed portobello

remember last year when i stuffed portobellos with leftover risotto? it's such a simple and delicious way to transform leftover risotto into something different. especially because leftover risotto doesn't always reheat so well. it only took me a year - and a few more mushrooms stuffed with other flavors of leftover risotto - to realize it would be just as good with leftover pasta.

coconut lime scones

i love scones. so much so that i made two kinds - orange creamsicle and these - in two weeks. there are a lot of reasons why i like them so much - 

1. they're made in one bowl with a wooden spoon. no need to bust out the kitchen aid mixer or dirty a lot of dishes. 
2. and they take 10 minutes max to mix together and get in the oven.
3. they don't have to look perfect since they're homemade. we all strive for perfect looking cakes, cookies, and cupcakes, but scones are meant to be rustic and imperfect.
4. they're light, moist, and fluffy. there are few things worse than a hockey puck scone (dried out, dense and thick) that some coffee houses and bakeries offer. 
5. the flavor combinations are endless. with a good basic recipe, it's easy to mix in whatever you like.