Category — Recipes

Our family loves grilled pizza. Probably because of our long-standing tradition of grilling pizza before going out to Trick-or-Treat on Halloween. When the kids were growing up, all of their friends came to our house/neighborhood to go out for candy. Back then, purchasing pizza dough wasn’t even on my radar. Now, I’m lazy and simply pick up a package of pizza dough at Trader Joe’s and call it a day. But making fresh dough is fun and easy. The link for my dough can be found here.

In the recipe, I instruct you to place your stretched dough onto a pizza peel that is sprinkled with cornmeal. This makes it easy to slide the dough from the peel to the grill, preventing the dough from sticking. I made this pizza while in Chicago with Marissa. She did not have a pizza peel or cornmeal. So I made do with the back of a round baking sheet and crumbled saltines. By no means perfect or all easy but when you have to make do with what you have…

This recipe goes along with this Tuesday’s Tip for the perfect burger. (Next Tuesday’s Tip will be more grilling tips. Have to keep a good theme going!) Many professional chefs and home cooks agree that Worcestershire sauce is key to a great burger. This is because Worcestershire sauce is effectively an ancient fish sauce (it contains fermented anchovies), so it adds a sort of interesting depth of flavor or that perfect umami that enhances the basic burger to a true classic burger.

I spent last week in Chicago visiting Marissa, Jeff, and baby Max. This is one of the summer dishes I made for my sweet little family.

With summer coming to a close, the kids back in school, and the “ber” months quickly approaching, how about a fun, festive, and tropical summer dish?

This is the final recipe from the freezer meals I made for Marissa and Jeff before I returned home on July 2nd. The good news is that I am going back to visit next week. I can’t wait to get my hands on sweet Max! Here is a list of all nine of the meals I made for the new parents, with links to each of the recipes.

Picadillo Taco Meat

Tuscan Chicken w/Cannellini & Cremini

Chicken Fajitas

Spinach Lasagna w/Mushroom Ragu

Sausage, Poblano & Broccoli Quiche

Chicken & White Bean Chili

Sesame-Carrot Soup

Creamy Celery Soup

Meatballs in Red Sauce

Today is the 13th Blogiversary of this page! Yay!!! If you have followed for long, maybe as long as *thirteen years, then you may remember Amy’s Famous Taco Soup. I posted that wonderfully easy recipe on November 3, 2009, during year one of this blog. Just like Amy, Lisa is a long-time dear friend and a former neighbor in Equestrian Manor. And just as with Amy, Lisa has a recipe that is a family favorite. Lisa has been making this pasta dish several times a month for the last 20 years for her family. They request it often, and she is always happy to oblige. Lisa recalls that she adapted what was to be a pizza topping into a pasta dish. Excellent decision!

Lisa made it for me when I had the pleasure of going to the family cabin outside of Prescott this past weekend. The sunset photos are from that beautiful and magical place. Thank you, Gordon and Lisa, for inviting me, and thank you, Lisa, for agreeing to let me share this gem of a recipe!

*Today marks 13 years since the first post here at LesPetitesGourmettes.com. In the past, I’ve made a big deal about my Blogiverasary. That doesn’t feel appropriate this year since there have been many gaps, a few very long gaps, especially in the last several years. Yet, this is the 2,084th post. So, all in all, not too shabby. Thanks for hanging in there through it all!

Are you even making freezer meals if you don’t make at least one style of lasagna? I think not. Jeff is a true carnivore. Marissa is a former pescatarian. She eats meat now, but in limited quantities, so I decided a vegetarian lasagna would be a nice touch since many of the other freezer meals I made included meat.

Unfortunately, I did not take even one photo of the lasagna, all I have are screenshots taken from videos I shared on Instagram. So please forgive the seriously awful pics! As biased as I am, I feel as though the photo above makes up for all of it. <3

Yes, if you’re thinking this is now a baby and recipe blog, you are right. I can’t help but share this photo of Max in his new sleep suit. Swaddling is now done with, the suit is what is now the cat’s pajamas! Plus, he is adorable in it. I fly back to Chicago to see Max and his sweet mama in two weeks, I seriously can’t wait to get my hands on him!

Today’s recipe is the epitome of dump and cook. A package of chicken thighs, a package of mushrooms, a bell pepper, open a couple of cans, dump, season it up, freeze, thaw, cook and you’re done!

The remaining freezer meals I made for Marissa and Jeff only have one photo, which I took to use on Instagram stories while I was there. Hopefully, that will be enough to entice you to give at least a couple of them a try. I’ll start with this one that was so easy and quick that I only needed 1 bowl and a microwave to prep.

A little bonus today; photos of sweet Max who turned 2 months old on August 1st. He fills my heart with so much love and joy!

I hate to have to call out someone here on the blog, especially my own daughter, but for the sake of this recipe, it must be done. Marissa does not have a decent sheet pan. When I say a decent sheet pan, I mean a large 13 x 18-inch baking sheet with sides, also known as a half sheet pan. Yes, the pans most of you have are actually half sheet pans. Here is the breakdown:

Quarter sheet pans are typically 9 by 13 inches (standard size for sheet cakes), half sheet pans are 18 by 13 inches (this is the size of most pans described simply as baking sheets) and full sheet pans are 26 by 18 inches (too big to fit in many home ovens, but the standard commercial size).

One of Marissa’s sheet pans is a quarter sheet pan, the other is smaller. As such, this recipe was very difficult to make while I was working on stocking her freezer before I left town.

You may be thinking, “Linda, seriously, just buy the girl a proper sheet pan!” Oh, I would, if my daughter wasn’t a minimalist. I do my best to NOT buy her anything that has not been preapproved. I don’t blame her for being a minimalist, she grew up in a maximalism home. The more, the better, is my motto. Why have one set of fine china when you can have six or seven patterns? Why have one set of clear cocktail glasses, when you can have multiple sets of various colors and styles? And don’t get me started on all of the delicious holiday selections! You get the idea. Plus, during her adult life, Marissa has lived in big cities, San Francisco and now Chicago, where space in your typical home needs to be used wisely. Whereas, she grew up in the suburbs and her mother always had plenty of room and could always add on a shed or two, or three! So, I get it. But Marissa, you NEED a half sheet pan!

*Important Reminder at the end of the recipe.