These cute little crispy prosciutto cups make for an impressive and compact breakfast presentation.

Underneath the egg, you can place any filling you would like, or none at all. I’ve given you several examples of things you might like to add to your cups; such as roasted veggies, pesto, salsa, purchased or homemade giardiniera, or simple tomato slices.

You’ll need two muffin tins of the exact same size. The reason you need two tins is so that one can sit directly on top of the other once it is lined with the prosciutto. Doing so prevents the prosciutto from curling up and shrinking while it is baking in the oven.

The cup in the photo above was done correctly, the cups in the photo below were not. See the difference?  Since the curled-up prosciutto cups were too small to hold an egg, I piled one scrambled egg into two cups that I had lined with tomato slices.

This recipe makes six, but can easily be doubled if you have a crowd to feed and happen to have two matching 12-cup muffin tins.

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I am naming this “bonus salad” because while creating it, my intention was to include it in the “Take your Lunch to Work Week” that I just wrapped up for my sweet Marissa. But once I got into it, I slowly came to the realization that this takes far too much time and effort than required for an easy lunch to brown bag… that is unless you use it as leftovers… from dinner the night before. In that case, it’s perfect!

I made this a week ago Sunday and, as with most Sundays, we had my dad over for dinner. Dave and Dad devoured this thing. They loved it so much that they each had not only seconds but thirds!

If you are lucky enough to have leftovers and want to brown-bag them the next day – here is what you do: Pack the greens and the feta together in one container or zip-lock. Pack the mushroom-asparagus-rice mixture in a microwave-safe container. Nuke the mushroom mixture to just warm it through. Place your greens and feta on a plate and top it with warm stuff. Yum… makes me wish I would have had leftovers of my own last Monday. 🙁

The “bonus pics” in the title refer to some iPhone pictures of a few of the beyond delicious courses we had at Binkley’s last night. How I love that place! You’ll find them below the recipe.

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This sandwich was originally going to be made with brie cheese because I know better than anyone just how much Marissa loves brie. But hey, since Marissa is not here to eat the sandwich, I switched it up and made it with Swiss cheese. To turn it back into a brie sandwich, just take a wedge of brie, slice off the rind, cut off a few slices and let the cheese come to room temperature before putting the whole thing together.

Oh, and I am having so darn much fun playing with the artistic effects on Photoshop, as you can see in my super cool photos – above and far below.

On a personal little side note: Happy 27th Anniversary to my very patient husband, David. I’m looking forward to our celebratory dinner at Binkley’s tonight. (no need  to worry, we’ve hired a driver because trust me, there will be plenty of wine-parings involved)  xoxo

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This salad comes together quickly. The pasta takes ten minutes to cook and while that is boiling away, you just have to chop up a few things and then toss it all together in a bowl… and you’re done. Easy and quick, right?

You’ll only be using half of a can of beans. Refrigerate the rest and add it to another salad later on or mash with a little olive oil, garlic, minced cilantro, salt, and pepper and you have a tasty little bean dip.

The feta I used is, of course, from Trader Joe’s and I love the addition of the Mediterranean herbs. Oh, and crumbled goat cheese would be a lovely cheese to use instead of feta.

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I recently received a blog request from one of my loyal followers… OK, it was from my daughter, Marissa. But she counts as my most loyal follower. No one has commented more, in the nearly 3-year life of this site, than my sweet girl. And I thank her profusely for that and for her constant support and encouragement. To that end, naturally, I will be fulfilling her request.

She asked if I could post some brown-bag recipes. New ideas for yummy stuff she could take into the office for lunch. Marissa has a varied and sophisticated palate. She was a vegetarian back in middle school and still doesn’t eat much meat, although she, like most intelligent individuals, loves bacon.

All week I will be creating recipes and giving specific instructions for brown-bagging. Each of these recipes will not only make for a perfect lunch but a lovely light supper too.

In most cases, everything listed in each recipe can be easily found at Trader Joe’s. (Which is, of course, this mother and daughter’s favorite place to grocery shop.) Take the hearts of palm in this recipe for example. Sure you may find them in a regular grocery store… eventually. But you’ll probably need to search high and low until you finally give up and ask for help. But at TJ’s they will be on the one and only aisle of canned and jarred goods… right alongside the pepperoncini peppers, sun-dried tomatoes, Kalamata olives, olive oil, and balsamic vinegar you will also need to purchase, if you don’t already have them on hand. And there is no better place to buy cheese, it’s always fresh at TJ’s because of the high turnaround… and the price is hard to beat. As for the produce – unless the grocery store is running the specific items on an ad that week, the price is about the same. Well, except for the basil. No grocery store can touch the super low price of basil at TJ’s!

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Our sweet little cold spell has come to a screeching halt… it’s going to get up into the low 80’s today and up to 85 throughout the weekend. Darn, I was soaking up as much of the cold as I could. Yesterday’s hot soup may have been the last for quite a while. OK, enough lamenting, back to “Kim Week”.

Kim’s friend with the urban farm, Chris, sent over eggs from her chickens and duck. Or maybe it’s ducks, as in more than one. I haven’t visited the garden yet, so I’m not sure. But look at those gorgeous eggs! Kim said that the two white eggs on top were the duck eggs, they look a bit small for duck eggs to me, but maybe they are small ducks! Hopefully, I will learn more soon, after a tour.

Doesn’t that basket look sweet in my fridge? Makes me wish I still had my chickens and a cool chicken coop.  There are so many pretty coops on Pinterest, it has me dreaming of one of my own.  Speaking of Pinterest, I’ve added a “Pin It!” button at the bottom of each post, so if you see something you’d like to share, feel free to pin away!

Even though the basket of pretty brown and colorful Araucana eggs in my fridge makes me feel quite wealthy, I had better use them up. And there is almost no better way to use up eggs than to bake up a quiche or two… or a half-dozen individual quiches.

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In May 2000, when Connor turned nine, we took a family trip to the east coast; Newport, Rhode Island,  New Hampshire (including the Ben & Jerry’s factory), Philadelphia, New York City (Statue of Liberty, Broadway, the Empire State Building, Times Square, etc.), Washington D.C. (Smithsonian, White House, Capitol, all the monuments, etc.), Colonial Williamsburg, Arlington National Cemetery, and Mount Vernon.  The highlight of that trip for Connor – and about the only thing he remembers, besides celebrating his birthday – was his first taste of lobster (Yes, that is the actual moment in the photo above)! He immediately fell in love and ate lobster at every meal it was available for the rest of the two-week vacation.  His happiness came to a screeching halt when we arrived back in Arizona and he learned that lobster was a seriously special treat, not an everyday staple, like say, peanut butter, and jelly sandwiches.

He still loves his lobster and I know that when he sees this post, he’ll be begging me to make it for him when he comes home this summer.  I love him to pieces, so I will!

The other guilty pleasure I want to show you is this fabulous vintage grocery store scale I purchased on Thursday at Sweet Salvage. Isn’t it amazing!?!  It obviously needs to be calibrated… or maybe I’ll just let it be.

Back to the lobster … I read an article about this over-the-top sandwich made by the Devilicious Food Truck from San Diego, California, and had to try and copy it at home. It was a major success!

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The Super Bowl is in 3 days, so today and tomorrow, I’ve got a few party dips to share with you. These first two represent the two teams I’d rather see in the Super Bowl. Number one is, of course, my Arizona Cardinals. And the second would be the Green Bay Packers. I do realize that these two teams could never be in the Super Bowl together since they are both in the NFC (along with the New York Giants). But still, I’ve created a couple of dips as my show of support for next year. It was great coming up with the ideas for these recipes while looking online for fantasy football news and updates about the two final teams.

Tomorrow I’ll share the dips I created for the actual teams in Super Bowl XLVI, the New England Patriots, and the New York Giants.

Here in AZ, we love our heat and peppers. In Wisconsin, they love their cheese and beer. And we all love bacon…

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Not much to say here, except these are pretty fabulous sandwiches!

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We’re going to use the first portion of the roasted vegetables from yesterday’s post in this recipe. You will need to estimate and set aside 1/4 of the yield from each vegetable, keeping them separated. Then make a tart crust (or you could just use 1 sheet of puff pastry).  I link you to a tart dough recipe here on the blog. You’ll only need half of it, but go ahead and make the full amount. You will love this tart and you’ll want to make it again, I promise! So make the full amount and freeze the other half of the dough and it’ll be even easier to make the next time.

I served the tart at a dinner party atop baby greens that were lightly coated with this vinaigrette,  but straight up is great too.

P.S. I’m just sorry that I served it on this bright peppermint stripe platter (hey, it was still the Christmas season) because it totally distracts from how bright and colorful the tart is. Go back up and see the top photo for proof of that!

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