cookies are the key to world peace.

Cream Cheese Wontons :)

Quite possibly the easiest type of wonton you can make.

Ingredients: cream cheese, red bell pepper, green onion, celery, red onion, salt.  All wrapped up in a wonton wrapper.  Yeah, it’s that easy!  

I used sweet chili as dipping sauce, which goes really well with the wontons.  My mom makes a sauce that complements the wontons much better than sweet chili — and if I ever remember it, I’ll be sure to share.  :)

Tomato & Cheese sandwich. :)

I’ve basically been living on these lately.  I can’t get enough of them.  They’re so simple to make, but so amazingly delicious.

My ideal tomato & cheese sandwich consists of:

Thick slices of juicy tomato (sprinkled with some pepper)
Fresh basil leaves
Thick slices of sharp cheddar cheese

All stacked between two slices of multi-grain wheat bread.  Best eaten on a sunny day, sitting in a luscious garden, accompanied by an amazing sister.  :)  I miss being in Utah with my sister.

Ever since I’ve gotten back to school, I’ve kind of had to improvise with whatever the dining hall has.  The Ricker Community Garden Project has some huge basil plants growing right out side of Robinson, and I really want to snag a bunch, but I don’t think I’m supposed to.  Poo.

Oh.  And a tall glass of homemade virgin Mojito goes great with it (you can add the alcohol if you want, haha).  Too bad it’s hard to get stuff for that here, too.

Sorry I keep on posting about all this random food.  I haven’t been able to bake yet. :(

I love Samovar (@samovarlife).

A perfect lunch/dinner.  Delicious sandwich, delicious salad & fruits (especially the fresh figs!), delicious tea, and delicious atmosphere.  What more could I ask for?

Just good company, I guess. :)

Scallops glazed with a french white wine sauce (called “bur blanc”).  Served with red baby carrots and peas.

Mmm.  Dinner was delicious last night.  My sister is too amazing. :)

The bruschetta prior to being mixed and plopped onto toasted bread. :)

Bruschetta!  :)

Last week, I flew from Portland to Sugar House, Utah to visit my sister.  I’m staying here until this Saturday, when I’ll be flying to California for school.

Spending my last few days of summer with my sister has been absolutely amazing (despite how busy she is with medical school).  Not only have we been able to squeeze in a bunch of awesomely fun activities, we’ve also been able to cook a TON of food (she probably won’t have to cook for a good 10 weeks after I leave.. haha).

Ever since I’ve been here, I’ve had the best variety of food, ranging from homemade French Onion Soup (my favorite) to Baba Ganoush from a lovely restaurant called Mazza to Dim Sum to homemade Chunky Beef Stew.  My sister is probably one of the most incredible chefs I know (especially considering the budget she’s living on).  She’s nurtured a sweet garden in her backyard consisting of herbs and tomatoes, and almost everything she cooks consists of something freshly-harvested from her garden.  I’m so grateful to have her in my life, and to be living here with her for 10 days.  :)

I’ve been able to help her with tending to her garden, maintaing her house, studying and — the best part — cooking!  She’s been sharing a ton of tips with me, and teaching me the most delicious recipes.

Today, I made a bruschetta that consisted of sun gold tomatoes from the Saturday Farmers Market, homegrown chocolate cherry tomatoes and sweet one hundreds, homegrown basil, balsamic vinegar, olive oil, parmesan cheese, and a few pinches of salt and pepper.  We had it on the most amazing bread ever: sun-dried tomato bread.  It was absolutely delicious. :)

One of the best parts of bruschetta (aside from its wonderful taste) is that you can either eat it as a side dish, an appetizer, or as a meal!  Either way, it’s great!

Creepin’ for some pizza.  Haha.  Rodney just couldn’t get enough.

The pizza, pre-baking.

Hawaiian Barbecue Chicken Pizza.. mmm. :)

So, all summer, I’ve been racking up a bunch of different recipes I want to try.  To be honest, I’m getting a little tired of baking desserts (this is only temporary, I promise).  I decided to finally stray a little, and do some savory baking.  My first experiment?  Pizza, from complete scratch!

I got the recipe for super easy pizza dough from Smitten Kitchen (of course).  This is an amazing recipe that I think is a must-keep-for-the-rest-of-my-life.

My favorite thing about making pizza is that once you’ve got the dough down, you can do whatever you’d like.  So, I did.

Last summer, I fell in love with a Papa John’s “signature” pizza: Hawaiian Barbecue Chicken.  This became my inspiration for my first homemade pizza.

I made two 9” diameter pizzas packed with green bell peppers, red onions, marinated chicken, fresh pineapple, and pepperjack cheese.  The crust was perfectly delicious; it wasn’t too thick, too thin, too chewy, or too crunchy.

Another thing I love about making homemade pizza is that it’s so much less oily than pizzas you buy (frozen, ready-to-bake, or made-to-order).  Actually, I’m not even sure why they add so much oil.  Another great thing about homemade pizza?  How absolutely fresh everything tastes.  Yum. :)

The pizza ended up being a hearty and delicious success.  I’ll definitely be keeping this recipe!

Btw, this picture doesn’t really do the pizza any justice.  We were so busy devouring every last bit of it that we forgot to take some decent pictures. Haha.