Last Monday morning, once Marissa had left for work and I returned to her apartment after taking Dave to the airport, I sat down to eat lunch. It consisted of a boxed salad I’d picked up at Trader Joe’s the day before. My plan was to eat half of it and save the remaining half for lunch on Tuesday – that didn’t happen.

I scarfed down the entire tasty thing.  Monday night, when Marissa came home from work, we jumped in her car and headed back to Trader Joe’s to do her “big” grocery run.  She would finally have stocked shelves, refrigerator, freezer, and wine rack and could stop eating like a “third-grader with a drinking problem.”

Instead, she is now a young woman with healthy choices and plenty of nice wine to accompany her adult meals. (Did you know that in California “Two Buck Chuck” is actually two bucks, well actually $1.99?  Not that the $2.99 we pay in AZ is a bad deal, but I always wondered why it was called “Two Buck” when it really cost three bucks… now I know.)

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While I may be on the road in a U-Haul, towing a VW beetle behind, I still want to share with you some more of the fig recipes I created to use up the harvest from my tree.  The figs for this recipe and another one coming up tomorrow were all that I had left after I fought off the birds to get the last few.  While I was out picking, there was this one little finch who was mighty angry that I was stealing his figs.  I’m serious, he was acting like he planted, waters, and pruned the darn tree… and I was stealing from him! The nerve!  OK, honestly I don’t prune the tree, my yard man, Tony, does.  But hey, I am the one who pays Tony, so take that you selfish (and pretty darn cute) little bird!

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It’s been 5 weeks and 1 day since I put my 23-year-old daughter on a plane to San Francisco to begin a new job in a new city, without a place to live. What a wonderful and caring mother I am! She has been homeless ever since. OK, not living on the street-homeless, thank God! But sleeping on a friend’s couch for what will end up being 6-weeks-homeless. I also thank God for her very good and kind friend, Amanda, whose couch she sleeps on! xoxo Amanda, can’t wait to meet you.

And I will meet Amanda next weekend when Dave and I pull up in the rented U-Haul, pulling Marissa’s VW bug behind, to her new home. Marissa, Amanda, and a new friend, Jessica, found a place to live together. This was the plan all along; it’s just taken all this time to find the place and wait for it to be ready. Sleeping on a couch for 6 weeks, wasn’t part of the original plan, but I’m forever grateful that it was an option.

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And now for a little easy-breezy summertime pizza.  This comes together quicker than all the ingredients might lead you to believe – especially if you buy the cheeses already shredded.

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Happy Bastille Day. I wish I would have thought ahead and made something Frenchy, oh well, next year! Above is one of the many gorgeous photos my talented daughter, Marissa, took while in Paris for her semester abroad back in 2008.  And I couldn’t help myself, another of her photos is at the bottom of the post…

Of course, you can make vegetarian tostadas with just beans, but if you have die-hard carnivores and vegetarians sharing a meal or simply want to build a bigger tostada, just add in a little chicken substitute and the carnivores honestly won’t know the difference. Also, be certain to look for refried beans labeled vegetarian. Obviously, beans are already vegetarian, but some refried beans are made with chicken broth instead of water or lard instead of oil.

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The cobb salad was created nearly 80 years ago at the famous Hollywood Brown Derby restaurant and has been an American favorite ever since. I prefer to serve it as individual salads as opposed to presenting it on a large platter. That way it looks lovely for each guest. If served on a platter, it looks great for the first guest or two, but by the end of the line, all the “goodies” on top are either gone or mashed into a nasty-looking mess.

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Have kids? If so, this is a hard combo to beat; pizza and bacon cheeseburger in one easy-to-eat package.  Adults are pretty crazy about it too.

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Buffalo wings: check. Macaroni and cheese: check. Happy kids: check.  But, put the two together –  and Wow!

Another kid-favorite combo tomorrow…  oh, and Happy 4th of July!

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Just in case you missed Valley Dish and the seriously awesome dish we made, here is the LINK… and the recipe for the dish will be posted in the next couple of days… it’s so good!!!

If I’ve ever led you to believe that mistakes aren’t made here at Les Petites Gourmettes Cooking School, please forgive me. Although not necessarily every day, certainly at least every other day!  Eggs are cracked, not into the bowl as intended, but rather onto the floor. Flour has been thought to be powdered sugar when making frosting… easy to fix, just start over. Things burn, they are undercooked or overcooked, you get the idea.  Most are minor and easily repaired or corrected… while others… not so much.

Let’s see, there was a time a couple of years ago when a pair of young boys added 2 tablespoons of cayenne pepper to a pot of chili, instead of 1/4 teaspoon. That went directly into the trash. Thankfully, that’s actually rare, when something ends up in the garbage, although I was certain it was going to happen again last week…

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That is the literal translation for dulce de leche, milk candy. Sounds good either way you say it and these sweet little mini cheesecakes are the perfect vehicle for the sweet stuff!

I’ve used the cute little mini cheesecake molds and told you where you can purchase them before, back in December when I made THIS RECIPE. Also, I’ve told you how to make your own dulce de leche from sweetened condensed milk back in April when I made THIS. But you can also purchase ready-made cans of dulce de leche in the Hispanic section of most grocery stores.

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