Twist On A BLT: Bacon & Tomato Ravioli With A Salad Of Romaine, Almonds & Dried Cranberries

As we move thoroughly into fall, I decided to buy one last batch of fresh tomatoes from the farmer's market.  Given that we still have a good quantity of that wonderful Pasta Prima ravioli from Costco, I thought I would do something with that. Since we had lettuce and tomato already included in the menu, adding bacon jumped into my mind.

I cooked up some onion, garlic and crushed red pepper in EVOO.  I then added the chopped fresh tomatoes and let soften and blend in. Finally, I  added in those bacon pieces you get in the bag (real bacon, please, no substitutes) and warmed it through.  We garnished it with grated cheese and ground black pepper.

While not brilliant, we both agreed this was a very good dish and it took about as much time to make as it does for me to  do a posting on it.  The crushed red pepper gave some background heat and using the last of the farmer's market tomatoes gave it a fresh flavor.  We will definitely make this again: quick, easy, tasty and affordable is a hard combination to beat.

To go along with the theme of BLT, we had a romaine lettuce salad. The dried cranberries (craisins) are on sale this month at Costco with a coupon so three pounds of them cost 3.99, a real bargain.  We finished the salad with those crunch sliced almonds you get at Costco and it made for a wonderful salad that was pretty also.

I am sure we will find lots of good uses for those craisins. Aside from being affordable, they are colorful, tasty and good for you.  I highly recommend buying a bag before the sale is over.

For wine, we had the Ecco Domani Pinot Grigio 2008 that was given a solid rating Costco Wine Blog.  While not the best Pinot Grigio ever, at less than $8 a bottle it is a very good value. This someone sweet wine went well with the freshness of the tomato and my wife and I both agreed with the review that it was easy to drink and enjoy with this dinner.

To sum this up, the concept of Bacon, Lettuce and Tomato being used together has been around for a long time, but this shows there are still ways to innovate and put new spins on the idea.

Sorry About The Lack Of Posting-Regular Posting Will Resume 10/31

I have gone to a new work schedule and I have had some personal things that have been needing my attention.

My "regular" rate of posting at least a couple times a week will resume on 10/31.

Happy Halloween.

Mike

A Tribute To My Father And Pizza With Artichoke Hearts And Salami On Roasted Garlic Crust

Back when we were kids, my mom used to make pizza on Saturday night using french bread for a crust. It was something we looked forward to every week and it is one of those memories of childhood that you treasure and keep in a special place in your heart.

Recently, the tenth anniversary of my father's passing away came around and it made me think of that painful time and how we dealt with our loss. On the Saturday after my dad passed, my brother and I made french bread pizza at my mom's house both as a way to make a good supper quickly and as a way to connect to our father.

I am a person that would rather remember a someone's life rather than their death but realizing it has been ten years makes me think and reflect. Food is a pillar in reconstructing memories so for dinner on Saturday night, we made pizza using some bread with roasted garlic from Costco.

For the pizza sauce, I took some tomato sauce, spread it on and seasoned it with dried parsley, dried basil and a little ground black pepper.  Then I topped it with artichoke hearts and salami from Costco.  It was finished off with mozzarella and put under the broiler.

I thought it turned out great.  Those artichoke hearts from Costco are true bargain at just over four pounds worth for 8.49.  And we love that salami from Costco, it is so tasty and versatile.  Finally, the fresh baked bread seasoned with roasted garlic was a flavorful and substantial crust. And of course, using the bread for the crust was extremely quick.  In fact, I am sure I am spending more time writing this blog entry than making the pizza.

As I write this, I am just a little misty eyed.  I think back to the days of childhood and those Saturday night memories.  And I think about my father.  I am positive he would have been thrilled that I was writing a food blog. My dad loved a lot of things in life and let me assure you,  food was at the top of the list!

I am sure we will make pizza like this again and I am also sure it will always remind me of my childhood and of my dad.

Follow Up On The Availability of Products Mentioned Here At Costco Cuisine.

I have had several comments about the availability or lack thereof of various products mentioned here.

In my posting about Palermo's Margherita Pizza, it was commented by one reader that this item was no longer available. As items vary from region to region, I can't vouch for her store, but at least in the ones in Grand Rapids, Michigan still have them.

In the posting about Aarti's pizza,  someone commented that Costco sells paneer cheese. Unfortunately for me, I could not find it in either store near me, but who knows, maybe sometime soon I will be able to buy it.

In my review of Sabatasso's Pizza Variety Pack's,  it was asked where you can buy them.  I looked around and the stores in Grand Rapids, Michigan did indeed have them. 

Finally, I just went shopping for provolone cheese last night and I noticed a change in the one store I stopped at. Instead of Stella Provolone in a 2 1/2 pound package for $6.79, they had a 2 pound package of BelGioioso for 6.99. While still a good deal, this is a bit of a price increase. We have been big users of the BelGioioso fresh mozzarella, so I wonder if they are just consolidating cheese suppliers?

In any case, do keep in mind products of disappear and reappear in Costco.  Please also keep in mind that Costco is a big company that tailors itself to the needs of individual markets, so inventory does vary from store to store.   But on the upside, out of the dozens of postings I have done, only a few have "availability" issues.

October 14, New Coupons Become Active

Sorry about not posting for a while, some late days at work and I have been sick.


In any case, here is a reminder about the new coupons going live today, October 14.  My wonderful friends at "Addicted To Costco" have plenty of information about the new coupon book here. 

Clarification To Post On Chicken Panini With Naan Bread

It appears I was a bit vague in my post and I appreciate the input to help me clarify it.

It was asked if I sliced the naan bread in half.  The answer is no, I used two pieces of naan bread.

Each slice, on one side, was sprayed with EVOO and then sprinkled the chopped, fresh rosemary.

The sides with the rosemary on it faced toward the inside of the sandwich where the meat, cheese and tomato was.

I hope this clarifies things.

Thanks.

Chicken, Fresh Mozzarella And Fresh Rosemary Panini On Naan Bread-First Panini We Have Had That Was Better The Second Day

After making Aarti's wonderful pizza, we had a couple of pieces of naan bread left over.  Obviously, such good and useful food shouldn't go to waste, so I put on my thinking cap and started working on how to make a panini with it.

We had some fresh tomatoes around and we also had some of that wonderful Belgioioso mozzarella and I thought I would use those.  That left selecting a meat and I choose some deli sliced chicken.  These are all fine ingredients, but I thought I could put this over the top by seasoning this with some fresh rosemary because I do feel rosemary and chicken is a righteous combination.

Thus the design of the sandwich was this:

I sprayed some EVOO on the inside of the naan bread and then sprinkled chopped, fresh rosemary on that.  Then I covered each slice with the deli chicken meat.  Finally, I laid down the cheese and fresh tomato and flipped over the top slice of naan/chicken and I had a sandwich with bread and chicken on both sided with cheese and tomato in the middle. 

I then put the sandwich in a zip lock bag and put it in the fridge for a while to let the rosemary flavor meld into the EVOO.

After that, all it needed was a few minutes on the Griddler and dinner was done. (We also served it with some of the tomato basil soup we got from Costco a while back). Here is the finished panini:

As for how it turned out: the fresh tomato and mozzarella made it a bit moist and sloppy to eat. Not impossible, just a bit sloppy. But if the sandwich was a bit juicy, the flavor was spot on. As I said, rosemary and chicken go great together and that was the first thing my wife commented on when she tasted it.  The chicken,  tomato and fresh mozzarella also was a good combination of meat, vegetable and cheese.

As for the naan bread, it is a fabulous bread for panini and we will definitely be using it again and experimenting with it.

We had a fine meal of this with that organic tomato basil soup from Costco and that left a quarter of a sandwich for our lunch the next day.  And that is where things get really interesting: this is the first panini we have made that was better the next day!

After sitting overnight in the fridge, the sandwich solidified and was definitely less messy to eat. Also, the rosemary flavor blended in better after sitting overnight.  We both felt that this sandwich improved overnight.  And it works both hot and cold, because I warmed mine up and my lovely wife had her's cold.

This experiment was a great success both with this specific combination and our discovery that naan bread works great for making panini.  And it was a good use of Costco ingredients with the bread, EVOO and cheese, plus the soup on the side.

"Eat This, Not That" Recommends Palermo's Primo Thin Margherita That You Can Buy From Costco

Recently I was visiting my mother and she has to watch what she eats. She recently bought on of those "Eat This, Not That" books to help her in that quest.

I was thrilled to see them give a very positive rating to the Palermo's Primo Thin Margherita that Costco carries and that we have enjoyed so much and posted about before.

This is a hard combination to beat for a pizza:

• Great taste
• Great price
• Healthy

No doubt about it, these will definitely continue to be a standard item for our freezer.

Mango Chutney, Prosciutto and Naan Bread "Pizza"-From Aarti Sequeria, Winner of The Next Food Network Star

When I saw her do this recipe for her pilot, I was intrigued and I knew I we would try this someday.  After my wife discovered that Costco sells naan bread, we decided to do it. My wife followed the recipe as closely as she could, with the exception of using all fresh mozzarella instead of paneer for the cheese. (We don't know where to get paneer locally).

The pizza was pretty easy to make and here is a photo of it before it was baked.

After a few minutes in the oven, my wife topped it with the prosciutto and it was done.

The first word I will use to describe this is delicious!  This is absolutely a great recipe. There are a wide variety of flavors in this dish, but they work together wonderfully.  The sweet, spicy chutney compliments the pungent nature of the green onions.  The cilantro adds a fresh zesty taste and makes the flavors even brighter. The prosciutto adds meat and a slight saltiness while the cheese adds a dairy flavor and texture.

As I said, there are a lot of things going on here, but they really come together in a tasty and fun way.  This is definitely a dish we are going to make again. And it was a particularly Costco oriented recipe with the prosciutto,  cheese and bread all coming from Costco.


Note:


Here is the link to Aarti's recipe.

Save 38,750 Calories And $135 A Year On Your Work Day Chocolate Fix With Hunt's Pudding Cups From Costco

I brown bag my lunch and with very rare exceptions, I pack a Hunt's Pudding Cup that I buy from Costco.

The 36 pack of these goes for 7.49, which is a bit over 20¢ each. That compares to 75¢ each for a Snickers bar out of the vending machine.  Figuring in 250 work days per year and that is about $135 a year.

But there are more than just the monetary savings.  A Snickers bar has 280 calories while the chocolate pudding has 130 calories and the chocolate-vanilla has 120 calories. Figuring out an average of 125 calories, that is a whopping 38, 750 calories per year you will save.

As I said in my post about the baked Lays snacks,  this alone won't make you rich and thin, but it will help.

Peaches In Wine

My wife asked me to buy some peaches at the farmer's market and I said I would, on the condition that she would do something intriguing with them.  She agreed to those terms and I sent her a bunch of different recipes for her to get some ideas from.  She settled on something beautifully simple, elegant and delicious: peaches in wine.

For the wine, she used the Kirkland Signature 2007 Meritage, which we thought was a fine drinking wine.  We bought this wine based on the review of the 2006 vintage at the independent Costco Wine Blog.

The preparation was pretty simple. My wife simply peeled and sliced the peaches and soaked them in the wine for a couple hours. Then, just before serving, she garnished them with a little Ginger-Honey Balsamic that added just a bit of a twist.

The results were great.  The wine makes this into an upscale desert instead of just fresh fruit.  And the flavored balsamic added some "zing" from the ginger and a mild tang from the balsamic.  As I said, this dish was simple, delicious and beautiful we will definitely do it again.



Here is a link to the blog entry that this was inspired by.

Bourbon Chicken Kebabs

We are fond of the Perdue Farms Bourbon Chicken from Costco and we thought we would try something new.

I took some of the chicken out of the freezer and put it in the fridge to thaw out. Then we made kebabs (also spelled kebobs) with chunk pineapple and fresh green pepper.

We cooked them on the Griddler, with the Griddler being opened up so it was like a big grill.

As they cooked, I brushed them with Ginger-Sesame dressing and turned them now and then. Here is the result.

We were pleased with the results. They were flavorful and fun.  However,  for less effort and time we can make this Bourbon Chicken Salad.  My guess is we will make the kebabs again sometime, but we will tend toward the chicken salad. Let me be clear, the kebabs were fun and a good change of pace, we just get a better return on our investments of ingredients and time with the salad.

Chocolate Cheesecake With Nutella Mocha Affogato Recipe

I saw this wonderful recipe at Bell' Alimento.

Here  is the link to this wonderful recipe.

I am adding them to my links.

Costco Pumpkin Pie Review-On Sale With Coupon and Delicious!

Even at the everyday price of $5.99 the pie is a good deal. At $4.99 with the coupon, it becomes a great bargain.

The coupon has no limit, so we bought three: one for my mother in law, one for my wife to take to some friends and another for me to take into work.

The pie has a smooth, firm texture and it definitely has a pleasing pumpkin flavor.  It is sweetened just the right amount for my tastes: sweet but not so sugary that it feels like you are eating a kids breakfast cereal. It has been years since we have had a home made pie in the family and these pies are the reason why.  Excellent quality and a fabulous price. For the time and material at home that we would have to use, it makes no sense but to do anything but buy these when we want pumpkin pie.

New Coupons Start Thursday 9/16

My wonderful friends at Addicted To Costco have posted the new coupon book.

Enjoy!

Kirkland Signature Albacore Tuna Salad

The albacore tuna from Costco is definitely top quality stuff: great flavor, good texture, low in fat and salt and a great source of protein. My wife made this lovely and tasty salad featuring the albacore tuna.  She topped a bed a lettuce  with the tuna then layered some rice noodles on top to give it some crunch. Finally, she placed some mandarin orange slices around the side.  We dressed the salad with some ginger-sesame dressing and we were good to go.

It was a nutritious meal, with a variety of textures and flavors and it certainly is pretty.

And it took less time to make it than it did to put up this blog posting.

A Mini Review Of The Sabatasso's Pizza Variety Packs On Sale This Month

We saw these in  the coupon flyer for this month and we thought they were worth a try.

With the $3 off coupon, a 12 pack of mini pizzas were only about $7, which is a good price. There were six pepperoni and six cheese pizzas in the package. They are all individually packaged, which does make them easy to serve if you want just one or two of them.

At about 3.4 ounces each, they are definitely snack sized pizza, although we did cook up a couple each for lunch.

As for the taste, they are fine, but nothing outstanding.  With the coupon, they were a good value, so we have no regrets about buying them.  Will we buy them again? Probably not, just because there are things that are a better fit for our needs.

I do see people with families buying them because they are the right size for kids, they definitely are cute and they cook up very easily in a toaster oven.

They might also work well as something for a party, as a snack or as and "emergency lunch or dinner".

Depending on your needs, these may or may not be a good choice.  But I can definitely say this: while not a stellar value, they are a quality item at a decent price with the coupon

Quick Idea For The Pasta Prima Ravioli On Sale At Costco

Yesterday I noticed someone in the checkout line at Costco with several bags of the ravioli in their cart. They too, were stocking up while it was on sale.

She commented that she likes to cover the ravioli with marinara sauce, top it with part of one of the seasoning packets and then bake it.

Sounds like a yummy and easy idea.

I also found interesting she does not use a whole packet of seasoning at a time. The seasoning is good stuff, but it can be overpowering if there is too much of it.

Enjoy!

Bacon Wrapped Sirloin Paired With Kirkland Signature Meritage 2007

I recently added the independent Costco Wine Blog to my list of links and I have started using their recommendations.  Before the holiday weekend, I picked up a couple of bottles of wine and one of the was the Kirkland Signature Meritage 2007.

We served it with those wonderful bacon wrapped sirloin steaks that we are so found of.  This robust red wine went wonderfully with them and it was definitely a solid choice. At $10 a bottle, it was an excellent value and I would definitely recommend it.

The Costco Wine Blog did a review the 2006 Meritage and it was a Bronze rated wine.  I definitely feel they are reliable source of objective reviews and highly recommend them.

Nutella-Ricotta Ravioli With Raspberries-Recipe Help Needed

As you might guess from the number of Nutella links I have on my list, my wife and I love the stuff.  I thought I might get creative and try designing a desert using it. What I came up with was a ravioli stuffed with a mixture of Nutella and ricotta cheese and garnished with powdered sugar and fresh raspberries.

The filling was 1/3 cup each Nutella and ricotta cheese, plus a 1/2 teaspoon vanilla.

I then put some of the filling on wonton wrappers, folded the wrappers over and sealed them with water.

To cook the ravioli, I panned fried them in just a little bit of canola oil.  Then I garnished them with powdered sugar and dressed them with the raspberries.

The result was a mixed bag. As you can see, the dish is certainly pretty enough.  The filling was pretty close to what I wanted, but the texture of the ravioli was off. They were edible, but they were tough enough you had to cut them with a knife.

I think this idea can still work, but I have to figure out how to cook the ravioli. Should I deep fry them, fry them in a 1/4 inch of oil, bake them or something else? (I don't think boiling them will work).

My wife also found them a bit on the sweet side. I can control that by eliminating the powdered sugar and possibly by using something like whipped cream to "cut the sweetness".

If anybody has any suggestions, I would love to hear them.

Thanks!