BERRY PIE FOR TWO

When I was in North Carolina for Memorial Day Weekend, my family did something that we literally cannot go on vacation without doing: we shopped for pottery. Our favorite spot in NC is Mud Dabbers and this year I stumbled upon the cutest pie pan. I'm not gonna lie .. I wasn't really interested in anything in the store that didn't have some purple in it and I definitely was not in the market for a pie pan. But I saw that this one had some beautiful purple colors in it and it had a little recipe taped to the bottom entitled Berry Pie for Two. A miniature purple pie pan with a recipe for miniature pie? Of course I bought it.

Here's how you make pie for two!

What you need:

What you do:

Place the full sized pie crust in the center of the pie and cut the extra crust off the edges.

Mix all ingredients together in a bowl and then put the mixture into the pie pan.

Use the left over pie crust to cover the mixture. I used strips but feel free to cover it any way that you think makes it look the best! Then I placed the small pan on a baking sheet in a cold oven and turned it on to 425. The recipe said to cook for 40 minutes but it only took about 30 before the pie was golden brown so I took it out. I would say just keep an eye on it.

Now I know what you're all thinking ... I don't have a miniature pie pan! You can use the same recipe just use 2.5-3 times the ingredients. You will also need two pie crusts, one for the bottom and one to cover the pie, depending on how you want the design to be. That's really all there is to it!

This was the first pie I've ever made and I'll give myself a little pat on the back because it was delicious. And now it's gone :)

linking up today with Nicole's Treat Yo' Self linkup!

RECIPE: PIZZA ROLL PINTEREST SUCCESS

About a week and a half ago, my friend Anna threw me a welcome home party! It was so nice to get most of my friends in one place with lots of yummy food and wine. I wanted to bring an easy and delicious finger food for everyone to enjoy so I found a recipe for pizza rolls on pinterest and got to work!

I've tried and failed at some pinterest recipes before but let me just say that this pizza roll recipe is the easiest appetizer you will ever make. 

What you need:

crescent rolls

mozzarella cheese sticks

pepperoni slices

pizza sauce

What you do:

Open up the crescent rolls on a baking sheet. Place 3-4 slices of pepperoni on the wide side of the crescent roll. Then place half of a cheese stick on top of the pepperoni. Roll up the crescent roll and move on to the next one! That's it. Bake them at 350 for about 12 minutes or until the crescent rolls are golden brown. Some of the cheese may melt out onto the pan, but I just stuffed it back into the roll once they cooled. You can also skip the pepperoni if you are a vegetarian because the plain cheese rolls taste just as good once you dip them into the pizza sauce!

Have you ever made these rolls or had a successful pinterest recipe??

RECIPE: SOPA AZTECA

One of my very favorite dishes here in Costa Rica is called Sopa Azteca. It is essentially tomato soup but even better. I distinctly remember the very first time I had it almost 4 years ago at my host mom's house and knew I was in love. Now that the holidays are here, family gatherings are becoming more and more prevalent and this dish is very popular to serve .. lucky me! In fact, just last week I was lucky enough to have homemade Sopa Azteca two times. Even luckier, is I learned how to make it myself. It is a little bit labor intensive but also so worth it. Here's what I learned.

What you need:

1large tomato per person

half a chicken breast per person

shredded mozzarella cheese

avocado

tortilla strips (homemade or store bought)

oregano

onion

garlic

cilantro

red pepper

carrots

hot sauce

salt and pepper

What you do:

1. Start by putting the chicken to boil in water with oregano.

2. Cut up the tomatoes, onion, garlic, carrots, cilantro, and red pepper. It doesn't matter how big or small you cut these because they will all eventually be liquified. Put everything you cut up except the tomatoes into a pan to simmer. These things are called olores or smells, and they are used to give the soup flavor so you can decide how much or how little of each you put in based on what you like.

3. Start to liquify the tomatoes in a blender. Put a laddle full of the broth from the boiling chickens in with each tomato you are blending. Once full blended, pour the tomatoes into a colander that only lets liquid through. Drain all liquid possible and set the left over tomato aside. Do this until all tomatoes are liquified.

4. By this time, the olores should be fully cooked and soft. These also go in the blender with more broth from the chicken until fully liquified. This is very important because this mixture does not go through a colander but straight into the soup so it needs to be 100% liquid.

5. Let the soup come to a boil. Once boiling add any other herbs or flavors to your liking. Here is where you add salt and peper, more oregano, and the hot sauce (if you like hot sauce). If the soup is very runny, you can also add a little bit of flour to make it thicker, again, to your liking.

6. When you serve the soup, you also add the chicken, shredded cheese, tortilla strips, and avocado! All the flavors together are amazing and if you ever come to Costa Rica I recommend this dish 100%, especially homemade.

I hope you enjoy!

If you are interested in any other recipes you can find them here.

RECIPE: PICO DE GALLO

Going along with my goal of eating more fruits and vegetables this week, I decided to take my own advice to make it a little more interesting. Here in Costa Rica, pico de gallo is eaten all the time. I've watched Paris's family members make it countless times to be used at family parties with rice and beans, meat, eggs, tacos, chicken, you name it. So I decided I would try to make it myself to have on hand so that I can easily add some tomatoes and some flavor to anything I eat!

All you need are those four ingredients up there: lemon juice, onion, cilantro, and tomato.

First, chop up the amount of tomato that you want to use. I used two big tomatoes so that I could throw the extra pico de gallo in a tupperware and keep it. Next, chop up some onion. I used a little more than half of the one you see. Next goes in the chopped cilantro and to top it off the lemon juice. For the two whole tomatoes I would use the juice of a whole lemon. Mix everything up and add some salt if you like and you are done! Super easy right? 

Next I thought I would show you an example of how you can use your freshly made pico de gallo. A breakfast burrito! Because I don't like to make a big fuss in the kitchen (maybe one day) this "recipe" is also super easy.

On top of a tortilla, scramble an egg, cut a few slices of avocado and add your pico de gallo. 

That's it! Told you it was easy.

RECIPE: APPLE CINNAMON PANCAKES

I am a huge fan of breakfast for any meal of the day. As I write this sentence, I am really having a hard time thinking of my favorite breakfast food. There just isn't a favorite. However, pancakes are high on my list. I've been thinking about my blog a lot lately and in a few months when I am back at home, I plan on sharing a lot more recipes. Not just breakfast recipes, but things I have been wanting to try and haven't, and some of my favorite recipes from my mother's kitchen that I really want to share. So I thought I would start off with this apple cinnamon pancake recipe that my dad and I tried a few months ago. I shared this as a guest post but I never actually posted it on my blog. I hope you enjoy!

Here is what you need to make apple cinnamon pancakes:

1 cup of old-fashioned oats

1 cup of all purpose flour

3 table spoons of sugar

1 table spoon of baking powder

3/4 teaspoon of salt

 1 teaspoon cinnamon

1.5 cups of skim milk

3 table spoons of vegetable oil (we used apple sauce!)

1 large egg

1 small apple (peeled and thinly sliced)

Combine all the solids together. We sifted them but you can also just stir them all together in a bowl.

Beat the milk, oil, and egg until blended. Then pour the mixture over the dry ingredients and stir. Next, stir in the apple slices until everything is good and mixed together.

The batter will seem a little liquidy for pancake batter but thats okay! Then you just make your pancakes on low-medium heat.

This recipe is perfect for fall because so many of you have probably already gone, or are soon going apple picking and need a recipe that involves all of those apples waiting to be eaten. You'll have yummy apple cinnamon pancakes for breakfast (or any meal) in no time!

You can check out another pancake recipe I tried here.

this is not a healthy recipe

ever since the superbowl when we had some buffalo chicken dip, paris and i have been seriously craving some more. so when we finally found buffalo sauce in the store we bought some just for this dip. after a bbq with paris's coworkers we had about 4 extra packages of tortillas and paris told me .. we should make chips! now if i had know that he knew how to make home made tortilla chips, we would have been done this about a thousand times already.

for the dip we used this recipe. it is so easy and so addicting. and for the chips, here is what we did:

take some tortillas and cut them in quarters. fry them. thats the not so healthy part. paris used butter and some white substance called malteca that i don't really know what it is but i know its not good for you.

when they are done frying you can blot them with paper towels to take some of the grease off. then add salt and you're done!

i will warn you though. this combination is addicting! but definitely de.li.cious.

the best macaroni salad

i love macaroni salad. when i was little i used to beg my parents to take me to this very specific deli just to get my favorite macaroni salad. all other places just wouldn't cut it. that is .. until high school when i found out that the special ingredient was two pounds of sugar. darn you wilkes deli!!

anyway, paris's mom taught me how to make her signature macaroni salad which i now eat almost every other week.

what you need:

one package of noodles/macaroni/shells (you can use whichever type of pasta you prefer)

one can of drained tuna

some diced or shredded carrot

some chopped red pepper

chopped onion

diced cilantro

2-3 tablespoons of mayo (or more)

 

 

here's what you do:

mix everything together! it is really that simple and it really tastes sooo good. you can put as much or as little mayo as you like, depending on your preferences. i added a little extra mainly because there is mayo here with lime in it and i kind of love it.

in total it takes about 15 minuets to make. quick, easy, and delicious.

apple cinnamon pancakes

wanna know how to make them? head over to my friend nicole's blog and check out the recipe!

a pizza post

like i said yesterday, i spent a few days in boston with my bff lindsey. lindsey and i went to the same elementary/middle school/high school together, we played soccer together, we even had lockers pretty much next to each other .. but we weren't friends until after high school. and then i ended up transferring to the college she went to and we became roommates and the rest is history!

so every chance i get to go to boston, which really is almost every time i am home, i go stay with her. she loves it :) last time i stayed with her we made pizza. and this time when i stayed with her we made....pizza!

it was even easier than last time. here's what you need:

1 pizza dough .. we got ours from local pizza place which worked wonderfully

3-4 roma tomatoes .. the roma have less guts aka no mushy pizza!

sliced mozzarella cheese

step 1: kneed the dough onto a backing pan into the shape you would like your pizza to be

step 2: slap on those roma tomatoes. we chose just one layer but if you love tomato i would put on some more :)

step 3: add the slices of mozzarella cheese and some pepper flakes if you're into that. put it in the oven at 350 and just watch it until the crust starts to turn golden brown. for us it took about 15-20 minutes but that may vary depending on how thick the dough is.

and that is it! seriously the easiest thing and oh so delicious.

bake-athon

the other afternoon we made a ton of cookies and it was so much fun! i used to bake a lot in high school but it was nothing compared to the amount of cookies we pumped out this day. for the chocolate peppermint cookies we used this recipe and the sugar cookies we used this recipe.

on sunday i leave for florida for a few days! my grandma and aunt live down there so my parents and i are going to spend a few days visiting, including christmas. i've never been to that part of florida so i am excited to see what it's like. i hope everyone has a great weekend!

lemon poppy seed

a few months ago i wrote a post about some delicious pancake recipes. i never actually made any of those pancake recipes ... until now. this weekend we made some lemon poppy seed pancakes and they sure were scrumptious. i thought i would share the recipe with you!

you need:

 2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/3 cup sugar
pinch of salt
1/3 cup poppy seeds
zest of 3 lemons (the recipe calls for 4 but we used 3 and it was perfect!)
2 cups buttermilk
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
2 tablespoons butter, melted

 

in one bowl mix all the dry ingredients and in another bowl mix all the wet ingredients. mix them all together and voi la! lemon poppy seed pancake batter. 

super easy. even more super yummy.

enjoy!

a recipe for wonderful wednesday

when i was home i was most reminded of my mom's (and dad's) wonderful cooking. one recipe that especially caught my eye was her breaded chicken cutlets that she just has on hand pretty much all the time. they are quick and easy to make and i demanded she tell me how to do it.

this is what she said:

pound out some chicken breasts, dip them in egg, then in breadcrumbs mixed with parmesan cheese, then fry.

thats.it.

i made a little salad with those three colorful ingredients up there and that has been my dinner for the past two days. pretty much next to no effort and really tasty.

does this even count as a recipe??

in other news, i am co-hosting the wonderful wednesday link-up today! i am really excited because i have been able to meet some really awesome bloggers through link-ups like this and now i get the chance to co-host! 

Welcome to Wonderful Wednesday. This link party is here to aid you in finding not only new awesome blogging friends but 

followers as well. Share the love, follow the rules, and meet new people!This link-party can be found here every Wednesday.

1- FOLLOW YOUR HOSTS VIA GOOGLE FRIEND CONNECT

(the first links in link-up, marked host!)

2-LINK UP USING YOUR BLOGS URL

(please do not use a specific post)

3-FOLLOW OTHER BLOGGERS & COMMENT

(meet new people, make new friends)

4-GRAB THE BUTTON, ADD IT TO YOUR BLOG

(share the linky love, and button up below)

5-SHARE THE WONDERFUL WEDNESDAY NEWS

(tweet, facebook,  instagram & etc about link party)



IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN HOSTING

(email at contact.little.petrie@gmail.com)

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pesto pizza

so, friday night in boston, lindsey and i made pesto pizza! i have never really made home made pizza but the savvy cooker that lindsey is assured me it was super easy.

what you need:

pizza dough

two-three tomatoes

basil (about 1 &1/2 cups)

olive oil (not shown in the picture)

2 cups mozzarella cheese

3 cheese italian cheese (or whatever cheese you have)

garlic

 

prep:

preheat your oven to 350 degrees

use a food processor to combine the basil, italian cheese, olive oil and garlic. start with just a little olive oil and then add more depending on your preferences (you can add pine nuts to this, we didnt because we forgot to buy them at the store! but it tasted equally yummy)

get the dough ready buy kneading it a little bit and then stretching it out to the size that you want to make your pizza.

its super easy from here: just add the pesto, some sliced tomatoes and then the cheese!

bake for 15-20 minutes checking on the crust after 15 minutes

once it is baked you can dab some of the extra olive oil off with a paper towel

and voila! pesto pizza that is delicious :)

enjoy!