Bacon-Wrapped Mac-and-Cheese Dog

Bacon-wrapped Hot Dog

Wrapped a hot dog in bacon.

Grilled it along with some skewered mushrooms and red onions.

Topped it with some Annie’s Mac & Cheese.

It was pretty amazing, as you can imagine.

Hot Dog & Bacon are both from Applegate Farms.. Pretty rad company that you should check out. Here’s a brief overview from their website: Read the rest of this entry »

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Goat Cheese Stuffed Traverse City Cherry Burger

When my wife is working I’m in charge of dinner.

I like to cook, but we usually end up eating mac & cheese or hot dogs.

Since she’s been a vegetarian ever since watching Food, Inc., we sometimes like to have burgers when she’s gone (so we don’t feel so guilty eating in front of her).

For whatever reason, I get adventurous when I’m cooking for myself.

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Three-Bean Pasta Salad

Okay, so this three bean salad only has two beans. But it is really good and we’re eating it all the time this summer, so who really cares.

You can make this salad ahead of time and then toss with the dressing just before serving. Keep chilled until you’re ready to eat.

For a lower-calorie option, we cut out the salami.
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Grilled Pizza

These grilled pizzas are awesome. We had a couple of pepperoni and one Greek and it was so sad to see them disappear…

Since they are a little smaller, it’s fun to make two or three different pizzas too. I included a few of our favorites for inspiration, but the fun is to get creative, make it your own, be adventurous and try new things
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Grilled Shrimp Tacos

The red cabbage slaw totally made these. Although the chipotle sauce also totally made them.

The grilled shrimp totally made them.

No. The slaw.

But honestly as awesome as these grilled shrimp tacos are, I think what I created with the leftovers may have been even better.
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Morel and Wild Leek Fritatta

This is one of the most amazing breakfasts I’ve ever had.

Probably because we (basically) foraged all the ingredients ourselves. (Maybe next time we’ll make our own feta).

After 3 years of searching for morels around our Northern Michigan home, I finally decided to ask for help.

So our whole family went out last weekend and searched.

After about an hour we were about to give up when my sister spotted them.

Then we saw a few more.

We were hooked.

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Goat Cheese Primavera

If this did not have goat cheese it would be pretty good.

It does have goat cheese though.

So it is super-fantastic.

Plus it made me feel good about myself because I was eating piles of veggies.

even peas (and broccoli and asparagus and tomatoes)

Some men think they don’t like vegetables… but they probably have just never had them with shrimp and goat cheese.

Check out the recipe on my wife’s site.

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Southwest Veggie Enchiladas with Homemade Ancho Sauce

At this very moment I am trying to decide if 10:45 a.m. is too early to bust out leftovers…

This meal is both simple and beautiful, and is guaranteed to knock your socks off.

I’d recommend it to vegetarians when hosting your carnivorous father-in-law… just don’t tell him it’s meatless…

He’ll be so busy stuffing his face, wiping sweat from his barren cranium and breathing loudly through his nose that he’ll never notice.

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Falafel with Cucumber Sauce and Homemade Pita

Do I even have to say that my favorite part is the cucumber sauce?

This is a cool recipe and a great way to entertain guests with a really pretty dinner (my photo doesn’t do it justice).

In the past we’ve used packaged pitas, but this time (and maybe from now on) Noël made her own thanks to a book (with a fabulous cover design, I might add) given to us from one of our most boisterous Lebanese friends.

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Turkey Burger Throwdown

turkey-burgers

Southwest Salsa Ranch

vs.

Kalamata Mayo Pepperjack.

GO!

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