Grilled Heirloom Tomato Caprese Sandwiches

There is something to be said for a simple tomato and cheese sandwich. This bad boy uses farmer's market fresh heirloom tomatoes and melty, fresh mozzarella cheese. Add in some fresh basil and a drizzle of balsamic vinegar, and you've got yourself an extremely tasty sandwich!

Sometimes I set out at dinner time having no clue what I'm making. This sandwich happened at one of those times. Since I've started frequenting the farmer's market, I find myself staring down a variety of produce in the fridge. What am I going to make with what I have? When my eyes skipped over these maters' and the ball of fresh mozzarella sitting next to it, an idea began to form. An added bonus? I have more basil than I know what to do with. And what goes best with tomatoes, mozzarella, and basil? The answer to that question is obvious- balsamic vinegar. I decided to grill the tomatoes and bread, and make a stacked sandwich. Boom! Dinner decided.

Aren't these tomatoes gorgeous? Heirloom tomatoes are some of my favorites. So juicy and flavorful, and that texture! Summer is gooooood.

A couple tips for making these sandwiches- I sliced my tomatoes before I grilled them. This turned out ok because I cut the tomatoes so thick. I don't recommend an amateur does this. If the tomatoes are overcooked, they become mushy and slide through the grates on the grill. No good! I think grilling the tomatoes whole or cut into halves is the way to go though, and then slicing after the trip to the grill. Also, these tomatoes are so juicy that you want to eat your sandwiches immediately. Grilling the bread makes it nice and crispy, but given the opportunity (say, 15 minutes for photos) these sandwiches will become soggy. Also no good. 

A side note about that basil- as I was harvesting a gigantic bowl yesterday, I happened to start thinking about how much I've received from the herb garden. If you cook a lot, like me, you're probably buying fresh herbs often. Expensively. After yesterday's harvest, I've frozen a total of 8 bags of pesto this summer. Each bag holds an estimated $6 worth of fresh basil. That's $48 I've saved already! Not to mention all the times I've ran outside and grabbed a handful of basil leaves to add to a recipe. Even the smallest container of fresh basil at the grocery store is $3! Basil grows like crazy and is fairly low maintenance. In fact, all my herbs grow easily with little to no attention. An herb garden is a great way to dive into gardening without taking on the headache of growing vegetables. I highly recommend trying to grow your own herbs. 

The hubby and I actually have big plans for the weekend! We are heading up to Cincinnati for another weekend with his cousin. On Saturday, we're all headed to King's Island, which is a huge amusement park in these parts. Last time the hubby and I visited the park, we had a serious struggle over what to do. Due to my headaches, I don't really like to ride coasters. They rattle my brain around. The hubby, on the other hand, is my polar opposite in that department. Needless to say, our previous trip was spent mostly on kiddie rides and staying in the water park. This time, the hubby and his cousin can ride coasters to their hearts content, and the cousin's wife and I will stay quietly in the water park. This arrangement is much more up my alley, so I'm looking forward to a fun weekend. I've got some errands to run to prepare for the weekend, so I guess I better get going!

Happy Thursday friends!

Ingredients (makes 2 sandwiches):

2 ciabatta rolls, cut into sandwich halves

3 heirloom tomatoes, cut into halves

1 (8 oz) ball of fresh mozzarella, thickly sliced (you'll have leftovers)

Handful of large basil leaves

Balsamic vinegar

Directions:

1. Heat gas grill to high heat.

2. When grill is hot, turn top and bottom burners to low. Turn middle burner to medium.

3. Place tomatoes on grill, cut side down. Grill for 3 minutes. Turn tomatoes over and grill for 1 more minute. Remove from heat and set aside. Place ciabatta rolls on grill. Grill for 1 minute. Flip, and grill for 1 minute. Remove from heat.

4. Assemble sandwiches. Slice tomatoes. Place a tomato slice on a half of roll. Place a slice of mozzarella on top. Place a couple basil leaves on top of cheese. Place another slice of tomato on top of basil, and repeat process. Drizzle balsamic vinegar over last layer of basil. Sandwich other half of roll on top, and serve immediately.

Printable Recipe

Looking for other sandwich and/or bread recipes? Try these!

Buffalo Chicken Mozzarella Melts

Grilled Tomato Basil Bread

Mom's Sloppy Joes with Garlicky Potato Wedges

Linked to: Weekend Potluck, Foodie Friday

Cincinnati Beer Run 2014

Well, it's Tuesday.

The weekend has come, and sadly, gone. I never got a chance to post my Monday post. Yesterday was crazy! One of those days you have after you've gone away for a long weekend, only to come home late Sunday night and realize the housework didn't go away while you were gone. In fact, it seems to have inexplicably multiplied. There's laundry to do, the grocery shopping must be done, the grass must be mowed, dinner must be prepared, dogs must be walked and fed, bird feeders to be filled, compost to be tumbled, etc. Not a lot of time for blogging when you've got a full day. I should have been up at 6 working on the blog yesterday morning, but instead I slept in till 8. I never sleep that late. I'm blaming the tequila-hangover-hideousness that was Sunday!

We had a great time in Cincinnati! We drove up Friday afternoon, which just so happened to be one of the hubby's cousin's wife's (that's a mouthful!) birthday. After meeting at one of the cousin's houses, we schlepped out for Mexican food. Delicious, delicious Mexican food. And no Mexican food outing is complete without a margarita.

The girls. I'm in the middle in the polka dot shirt. Coincidentally, both of the hubby's cousin's wives are named Kim, so we'll just go with Brunette Kim and Blonde Kim. It was Brunette Kim's birthday. The lucky girl is still in her twenties :)

The hubby is the only one missing from this picture, but someone had to be the photographer.

We were leaving for the race on Saturday morning at 8 am, so needless to say no one stayed up real late on Friday night. Come morning, we were all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.

For the most part. Not everyone's a morning person!

Ready to run!

The hubby and I decided to represent U of O on our run. Crazy enough, the hubby and I met another Duck fan! We met a guy who had just moved from Eugene to Cincinnati a year ago. He said he still works for the same company, which is based out of Eugene, so he makes a lot of trips back to Oregon. He asked us how we liked it here, and we chatted for awhile. He seemed pretty homesick to me, I felt bad for him. I definitely know how that goes!

The hubby and his cousins. They're Toys-R-Us kids. They're never gonna grow up :)

The race ended up being a ton of fun. Hard, I must admit, but fun. I've never been inspired to drink, and then exercise, and now I know why. It's not easy. The race was set up to start in Florence, KY, which sounds crazy, but it's actually just right across the river from Cincinnati. The race had us crossing the bridge from Kentucky into Ohio and back into Kentucky. That part was pretty cool, I thought. Every half mile there was a beer stand that was serving locally crafted microbrews. You could stop at all the stands, or you could stop at none of them. I opted to stop at all of them. I must say, running after guzzling a beer is like shaking beer up in its bottle, only it's getting shaken in your stomach. Not something anyone is going to want to do on a regular basis, but as a novelty? We all enjoyed ourselves.

And after we were done running, it was time for margaritas. Giant, fish-bowl sized margaritas.

And... this is what we looked like after the margaritas. I'm not sure who joined us in the picture :)

Brunette Kim hitching a ride with Blonde Kim.

Boys will be boys.

We headed back home early on Sunday morning, seeing as it was Mother's Day. We proceeded to spend the afternoon eating Lemon Blueberry Crumb Bars with my mother-in-law. So yummy. So obviously I've been back to the grindstone for a day now. I've got another crazy day on deck. Grrr. The only thing that must happen today is the harvesting of the fresh cilantro. It's gotten out of control! I don't know what happened, but we came home from Cincinnati and it looked like we had a little forrest of cilantro. Good thing I need to make some salsa :)

Happy Tuesday!

Lemon Blueberry Crumb Bars

So... I didn't make Lemon Blueberry Cupcakes. I just wasn't in the mood. I was reminiscing about my Raspberry Crumb Bars, and thinking I needed something like those in my life at the moment. And then, the idea just kind of formed. Why not another crumb bar? I don't make them often. With lemon curd, sprinkled with blueberries. And the more I thought about it, the less I thought about cupcakes until poof! The cupcakes were toast. Bring on the crumb bars!

And the rest is history. These turned out so yummy! I don't know about you, but I love baking with lemons. You can do so many things with them, and one of those things is lemon curd. Lemon curd is just one of those amazing things given to us by nature, and more importantly, chemistry. It's so surprising that the combination of egg, sugar, butter, and lemon heated to a precise temperature for a precise amount of time forms a creamy, delicious, smooth custard. Ah, science.

I had a hard time narrowing down my favorite photos to use for the post, so the post is a little more pic heavy than usual. My apologies :)

Besides the labor of love that is poured into the lemon curd, the rest of the bars are really quite simple. I made my dough in the food processor, and LOVED it. I can't believe I've never used it for that purpose before. I'll be experimenting with that a lot more. Thanks to my handy KitchenAid, I was able to make the dough in about 5 minutes. Yeah, I was proud. The blueberries got tossed in a little sugar and cornstarch, a spray of the pan with cooking spray, and I was pretty much done. Besides the baking part, but you know, that's all hands-off time. Meaning your hands are free to grasp a glass of wine while your bars are baking. I'm just saying...

I must warn you, these bars aren't for the faint of heart. They aren't your typical thinnish bar. They are thick, substantial bars with some real meat to them. I'm loving the thick layer of lemon curd in the center, it's luscious and bright. These would be a perfect treat for Mother's Day. Or any spring day. Or any day, period.

The hubby and I are off to Cincinnati for the weekend. We're looking forward to the Cincinnati Beer Run we're participating in tomorrow. I can't say I've ever ran in a race that handed out beer. I figure I should try every experience out that I can while I'm alive. We'll be staying with 2 of the hubby's cousins and their wives, so there will be lots of family this weekend. It should a fun, relaxing weekend in the city, which we so rarely do. Plus, I've already heard there will be Mexican food through the grapevine, so you know I'm excited. I can't say I'll be blogging any this weekend, so I'll close with my recipe.

Have a great weekend!

Ingredients (makes 12 bars):

Lemon Curd:

3 large eggs

3/4 cup sugar

1/3 cup lemon juice (2 lemons)

1/4 cup butter, softened

1 tbsp lemon zest

Crust:

1 1/2 cups flour

1/2 cup sugar

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 cup butter, cut into cubes

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 egg

1/2 tsp vanilla

Berries:

2 cups blueberries

1/4 cup sugar

1 1/2 tsp cornstarch

Directions:

1. Prepare lemon curd- place a double broiler over a saucepan of simmering water. Carefully whisk egg and sugar in double broiler, whisking constantly. Be carefully to watch the heat here, you don't want to scramble the egg, you want to temper the egg. Turn down the heat if you have to. After whisking for 2-3 minutes, add lemon juice, butter, and lemon zest. Continue to whisk, for about 15 minutes. You want to cook the lemon curd until it's starting to get thick, but is still creamy. Remove the lemon curd from the heat, place a place a piece of plastic wrap against the curd (to prevent a skin from forming) and set lemon curd aside to cool.

2. Preheat oven to 375º. Evenly spray a 8 x 11 pan with cooking spray.

3. Combine flour through salt in a food processor. Pulse until mixture is a fine crumb. In a separate dish, whisk egg and vanilla together. Add mixture to food processor. Pulse until mixture has formed a crumbly dough.

4. In a small bowl, combine blueberries, sugar, and cornstarch. Toss to coat. Set aside.

5. Press half of dough into pan to form the crust. Layer the lemon curd evenly over the crust. Evenly sprinkle the blueberries over the lemon curb. Evenly sprinkle the remaining dough over the bars. Bake in preheated oven for 45 minutes, or until bars are evenly browned. Remove from oven.

6. Allow pan to cool for 45 minutes- 1 hour before slicing bars. Serve immediately, or chilled. I found both ways appealing :)

Printable Recipe

Recipe adapted from Annie's Cooking Lab.

Linked to: Weekend Potluck, Foodie Friday, Treasure Box Tuesday, Tickle My Tastebuds Tuesdays

If you liked this recipe, you might also enjoy this recipe-

Raspberry Crumb Bars

Pretzel-Crusted Chicken with Honey Mustard Dipping Sauce

Happy 6th of May!

Hopefully you are joining me this morning sans hangover from Cinco de Mayo. I didn't really plan my recipes out well last week, resulting in the lack of a classic Mexican food post yesterday. But, we still celebrated the holiday. The hubby and I indulged in Corona's and Tortilla Soup. Or rather, I indulged in Corona's and we both indulged in the tortilla soup. I was going to make chicken enchiladas yesterday (by the way, this is the 3rd year in a row that my enchiladas have been sidelined), but the hubby is recovering from a stomach bug. Instead of spicy enchiladas, I settled for tortilla soup because it's basically chicken soup. Everything is added to the soup as a topping, so this was a perfect solution for the 2 of us. He could make his as gentle as he wanted, while I was free to devour the avocado, tortilla strips, cilantro, and Mexican cheesiness. So. Good.

Now, about this chicken... WOW! So freakin' yummy. I thought I'd really come up with something with this recipe, until I googled "Pretzel Crusted Chicken with Honey Mustard" and realized I definitely hadn't come up with a new idea. That's the thing with food- even when you think you've come up with something completely original, all it takes is a quick trip to Google to discern that millions of other people have also come up with your idea. Great minds think alike? :) 

I thought up this recipe the other night as I was snacking on some pretzels. After I imagined a crispy pretzel coating on the chicken, honey mustard popped into my head. Pretzels and honey mustard go hand-in-hand, so why not make a dipping sauce for the chicken? Boom. Done.

Let's talk a little bit about honey mustard. I'm a honey mustard freak. I love the stuff. Love it. My favorite honey mustards are the Arby's/Wendy's variety, and Red Robin's honey mustard. My ideal honey mustard does not include the dijon flavor. When I was in college (and had just discovered honey mustard) I remember trying every single type of honey mustard the grocery store had to offer. This was years before I learned to cook, by the way. I was really peeved that every honey mustard that Albertson's sold in 2001 was dijon-mustard based. So not what I was going for. I wish I could go back to 18-year old Jessica and say, "Hey smarty-pants, the honey mustard you are looking for could be made at home using 3 ingredients. 3 ingredients you already have." Alas, it took me until 2014 to find the perfect honey mustard. And this is the perfect honey mustard, for me. It's reminiscent of Arby's honey mustard in texture and flavor. It makes me hap, hap, HAPPY! And combined with this chicken? Even better.

Conversely, if you like honey mustard with a dijon base, simply substitute the regular mustard in this recipe for dijon.

I'm off to go for a run. The hubby and I are doing a... race in Cincinnati this coming weekend. I say "race" lightly because we are actually doing the Cincinnati Beer Run, which is 2.5 miles where you get a beer every half mile. So... not really expecting a PR on this course. It benefits the Marvin Lewis Community Fund, which helps a lot of kids in Cincinnati. That's right, I'll go and drink beers for the kids! My kind of fundraiser :)

Happy Tuesday!

Ingredients (serves 2):

4 boneless, skinless chicken thighs (you could also use chicken breast, and/or chicken tenders)

2 cups pretzels

2 eggs

2 tbsp mayo

1 tbsp honey

1 tbsp yellow mustard

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400º. Coat a cookie sheet with cookie spray. Set aside.

2. Put pretzels in a food processor. Pulse until the pretzels are small crumbs. Place in a shallow bowl. 

3. Lightly beat eggs in another small bowl. To prepare chicken, dredge chicken through egg, discarding any excess. Dredge chicken through the pretzel crumbs, ensuring the chicken is well-coated. Shake off any excess. Place chicken on prepared cookie sheet. Repeat with all chicken pieces.

4. Bake chicken in preheated oven for 20 minutes. Carefully flip chicken over, and bake for another 15-20 minutes. Chicken should be golden brown and crispy. Remove from heat.

5. While chicken is baking, prepare honey mustard. In a small bowl, combine mayo, honey, and mustard. Whisk to incorporate. Serve sauce immediately with chicken.

Printable Recipe

Honey mustard recipe adapted from The Salty Kitchen.

Linked to: Weekend Potluck, Foodie Friday, Treasure Box Tuesday

Random Thoughts: 3/3/14

1. Weekend in Cincinnati

Warped Wing Brewery, Dayton, OH

Hola! It's a very snowy Monday morning here in Kentucky. The hubby and I made it back from Cincinnati just in the nick of time yesterday! We had a fantastic weekend. Friday night, the hubby's cousin and wife took us to my favorite Mexican restaurant near their house. The gods of fate must have been smiling on me, because we only ended up at the Mexican restaurant because there was a 2-hour wait at the restaurant we'd originally planned on going to. Mwhahahaha. Did I send the population of Cincinnati to the original restaurant so I could have Mexican? The world will never know :)

Saturday night, they took us to fabulous little steakhouse near Dayton, OH called The Oakwood Club. The food was fantastic! I ordered the lamb chops, and I'm so glad I did. They were perfect. I compare all lamb to the best lamb I've ever eaten, which was at Texas de Brazil in Las Vegas 6 years ago. This lamb was so close to what I had in Las Vegas, I was just in heaven. Perfectly medium rare, pink, tender, the crust crisp with salt... Uh oh, I'm drooling again. After dinner, the hubby's cousin had picked a couple of brewery's for us to try in the Oregon District (I just love that) of Dayton. Needless to say, after a couple of drinks, the cameras whipped out-

Drinks at Newcom's in the Oregon District.

Cousin's wife and I.

Hubby's cousin, wife, me, and hubby :)

I had to include this pic because I love my face. I have no idea why I'm making it.

We woke on Sunday morning to about a quarter inch of ice on the ground. We were surprised as hell, the storm was supposed to hit late that afternoon. We grabbed our stuff as fast as could, thanked the hubby's cousin and wife, and hastily ran for the car. What an awful drive! The cousin's house is NW of us, so we had to travel about 40 miles east through the ice storm. Among the calamity we saw were a couple of cars sliding off the road and a flipped semi. Not fun.

Sheet of ice covering the road and the front of our car.

Once we got started heading south, we started to outrun it. By the time we were an hour from our house, we were driving in rain. Still, we came home and did not leave! We'd had enough, thank you very much. Until the snow came, which leads me to my next random thought...

2. More birds!

We got another 4 inches of snow last night, which means Casa de Jarrell is the most hopping' bird bar in NE Kentucky!

Seriously. When I opened the blinds this morning, there were flocks of birds in the backyard. Granted, we have 5 feeders, but wowsers! It was, by far, the most birds we've had yet. 

I love this sassy cardinal :)

I might be obsessed with cardinals...

Our latest feeder, a suet basket. Shockingly, the hubby only put it up at 7:30 am. For the 1st time, and they've already found it. I think that's a new record.

It's going to be a great day for birdwatching here on the homestead!

3. The Oscars

Image Source: The Oscars

The hubby and I managed to finish all the movies up for Best Picture. We put "Philomena" on at 4:30 pm yesterday, and powered through. We finished all the movies for the acting awards as well, however we were only able to catch an hour of "Blue Jasmine" before the show started. I felt we got a good idea of Cate Blanchett's performance, though. How'd we do? Awful. Jerame picked 4 out of 24 right, and I got 5 right. I really thought "American Hustle" should have won best picture (I thought it was the most interesting, seamless, well-acted movie we watched), but "12 Years A Slave" is also good choice. It was a very important, well-done movie. I think the only thing I'm flabbergasted by is that Meryl Streep didn't win Best Actress. This is an absolute robbery in my opinion. Her performance in "August: Osage County" is brilliant and awe-inspiring. Yes, Cate Blanchett did a fine job, but her performance didn't hold a candle to Streep's. Of course, this is only my opinion. I also thought Ellen did a great job. I love how her humor is not mean-spirited. And how much does everyone adore Jennifer Lawrence after last night? I can't believe that poor girl fell again. She handled it with such grace and good-humor though, I think I fell in love with her a little bit more. Which I didn't think was possible :)

That's it for today folks. I'm not sure what to do with myself right now, as I'm housebound. Monday's are usually my shopping day. However, the roads are really bad today, so I've relegated myself to being a hermit. I'm trying to summon the energy for a workout, but I've been fighting a losing battle with that all morning. I think the snow is lulling me into a nap. I'm so ready for spring!

Happy Monday everyone!

Apple Walnut Salad with Poppy Seed Dressing

I have found my new favorite salad dressing!

Wowsers, I was surprised by how much I liked this salad. Heck, I was surprised by how much I liked the dressing. The dressing really makes this salad, it's a non-negotiable. It must be on the salad, I do so decree. I'm only kidding, but why would you want to skip the dressing? There's about 1-2 tbsp of grated red onion (Yep, I took the onion to my box grater. Worked great!) in the dressing. That little bit of onion lends so much flavor to the whole recipe. Let's just say I'll be experimenting with grated onion for other recipes.

So, "Week of Salads" is going strong over here. Besides the nagging craving for a cheeseburger, I've been doing the "detox and eat lettuce/spinach" all week. I'm feeling good, minus a slight carb-preoccupation.  I'm not against salads with substantial carbs (loooooove me some pasta salad), I guess I just chose salads without this time around. This salad will leave you feeling so light, I'd advise serving this alongside a chicken breast, or even steak. Or, just eat a huge bowl and call it dinner. Your body will thank you for all the wonderful vitamins and nutrients you are about to inhale. Spinach, apple, grapes, celery, walnuts, crumbled gorgonzola... Oh my. The crunchy texture is offset by the creamy gorgonzola. Have I mentioned how much I love gorgonzola? It's one of my favorite cheeses, I could bathe in the stinky stuff.

So, 2 more days of salads (not including today, of course!) and then, it's the weekend. I'm excited, because the hubby and I are actually doing something. We're off to Cincinnati for the weekend, to spend some time with his cousin and his wife. The hubby and I were talking, and we haven't been up to visit them in Cincinnati since February 2012. It's time! This means restaurants I've never heard of, shopping I don't have normal access to, and hanging out with some people my own age. Not that I mind hanging out with the older crowd, I definitely don't. But it's nice to let your hair down and act like a kid every now and then. I see carbs in the form of pasta and wine in my future. And Mexican food :)

Welp, sorry to get everyone excited for the weekend when it's only Wednesday. Happy Hump Day!

Ingredients:

Poppy seed Dressing (makes 2 cups)-

1/2 cup sugar

1 tsp Dijon mustard

2 tsp kosher salt

1/3 cup apple cider vinegar

2 tbsp red onion, finely grated

1 cup olive oil

1 1/2 tsp poppy seeds

Salad (serves 2)-

4 cups baby spinach

1 Gala apple, thinly sliced

1/4 cup red grapes, halved

1/4 cup celery, diced

1/4 cup toasted walnut pieces

1/4 cup gorgonzola crumbles

Directions:

1. Prepare dressing- Combine sugar through red onion in a food processor. While processor is running, pour olive oil in to emulsify. Once olive oil is mixed in, add poppy seeds. Pulse once or twice. Pour dressing into a storable container, store tightly sealed in the fridge. Dressing will keep in the fridge for up to 1 month, halve the recipe if you don't want extra. Chill dressing until ready to serve.

2. Prepare salad- In a large salad bowl, combine spinach through gorgonzola. Drizzle dressing to taste, toss to combine. Divide salads among plates, and serve immediately.

Dressing recipe adapted from Food.People.Want.

Linked to: Weekend Potluck

Creamy Broccoli Cheese Soup

I'm slightly obsessed with Quiznos. That's probably an inaccurate statement these days since the closest one to me is in Cincinnati. And there are so many restaurants in Cincinnati, there's no way we're ever eating at Quiznos when we visit the city. So I get my fix when I go to Oregon. My favorite things about Quiznos? 1. The Turkey Bacon Guacomole. -->Drool<-- 2. Their Raspberry Lemonade. 3. Their Broccoli Cheese soup!

It's thick. It's creamy. It's cheesy. It's packed throughout with chunks of broccoli and shreds of carrot. It's the epitome of broccoli cheese soup for me. Imagine my surprise when I sat down to try and copy-cat a recipe that it was super easy. Seriously, there was hardly any effort put into this soup. I used a bag of frozen broccoli cuts and pre-shredded carrot. The only prep I had to do was chop an onion. Not only that, but the whole she-bang took about 30 minutes. I served this warm french bread, thus guaranteeing the removal of every last drop of soup from the bowl.

This instantly became a fall and winter classic in this house!

Ingredients (serves 4-5):

1 tbsp olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
1/4 cup butter
1/3 cup flour
2 cups milk
1 3/4 cup chicken broth
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
3 cups cooked broccoli, chopped
1 cup carrot, shredded
2 cups cheddar cheese

Directions:

1. Heat olive oil in a large pot. When hot, add onion. Saute 4-5 minutes, or until tender. Add butter to the pot, stir 1-2 minutes, or until butter is melted.
2. Add flour to the pot. Stir flour mixture around 1-2 minutes (just to cook some of the flour flavor out). Constantly whisking, slowly add the milk to the pot, about 1/2 cup at a time. Once the milk is incorporated, add chicken broth. Whisk until chicken broth is completely incorporated, about 2 minutes. Add salt and pepper.
3. Add the broccoli and carrot to the pot, cook for another 3-4 minutes, or until broccoli is heated. Add cheese to the pot, stir constantly until the cheese melts and completely incorporates.
4. Using a blender, food processor, or immersion blender, pulse the soup a couple of times to give it a chunky texture. Add salt to taste.
5. Serve immediately!

Recipe adapted from The Girl Who Ate Everything.

Sunday Selects

Everyone has been doing a favorites post lately, so I thought I'd jump on the ol' bandwagon. Of course, everyone else got their posts in for "Friday Faves", while I did not. So you have "Sunday Selects". Voila :)

1. Spring!!!

I feel bad rubbing the fact that Spring is here in some of your faces' (ahem, Aunt Marilyn, who just got 10 new inches of snow in Minnesota). However, everything is starting to turn green here, flowers (ok, weeds) are popping up, and we've had some warm, sunny days. I'm not the only one loving it-

Ah, yes. That special time of year when one's dog loves to roll around in the grass, getting who knows what on him. 5 minutes after their bath's. Sigh.

2. The Americans

Image source: IMDB

If you haven't gotten into this fast-paced, highly fascinating show about Russian spies living in America during the Cold War starring former "Felicity" star, Keri Russell, you are missing out. One of the best parts of the show is to watch their (in today's standards, mind you) completely outdated technology. It's so crazy that this stuff was considered high tech just 30 years ago. Man alive, I'm old!

3. Brookside's Dark Chocolate

Image source: Facebook

I'm totally obsessed with these pieces of dark chocolate filled with pomegranate juice. The hubby is going to have to send me to dark chocolate rehab pretty soon :)

4. We've Got Spirit by James T. McElroy

Image source: Amazon

Here's what I'm reading right now, and here's why. This book was written about the cheerleading team where my hubby went to high school, and the county that I'm living in currently. They've won nationals many, many times. So many times, in fact, that someone decided to write a book about them. From what the hubby has told me, people around the county HATE this book, because they think it makes them look bad. I'm finding it pretty accurate so far, and it was written almost 15 years ago. Not my normal-type read, but a good historical account set in where I'm living.

5. Spring Time Baseball Games

Ok, so I've only been to 1 game. It was fantastic though! It was a sunny, 70º day in downtown Cincinnati, with hardly any wind from the river. We got free Red's fleece blankets, and drank beer for a couple of hours with friends in the sun. Does it really get any better than that? I also inhaled a plate of nachos that were piled high with BBQ pulled pork, salsa, jalapenos, cheese, and guacamole. Um, I'll be going back just for the nachos alone, thank you very much!

6. Buxom Buxom Big & Healthy Lip Polish in Amber

Image source: Sephora

Another of my latest obsessions. This slightly plumps your lips, has tons of sparkle, and just a hint of nude color. I'm already on my 2nd tube since October.

7. Miranda Lambert's "Mama's Broken Heart"

Image source: Slack Time

This is currently my go-to workout song. Between the fast beat and Miranda's bad-ass-ness (yep, just made that up), this song really get's my Mojo going. I love, love, LOVE Miranda Lambert. Every song she does is perfect. I can't remember the last song that she released that I haven't bought. I really should just buy her albums :)

I hope everyone had a fantastic weekend!