Avocado Caprese Salad with Balsamic Reduction

It’s easy to overeat during lunch time. You’ve been up since 6am, work is stressful, you’ve already eaten your daily intake of healthy snacks but you’re still starving.
And you know what? Everyone makes bad decisions when they’re starving.
Your mouth is watering, the stomach aches with hunger.
You walk into the Deli.
The options are endless.
Everything looks good.
Even things you normally don’t eat look good. Like Fried Chicken Sandwich or the Italian Meatball Sub with Double Provolone Cheese — you know, just to throw some examples out there.

Caffe' Shakerato

First things first, let’s do the pronunciation thing.
Caffe’ shakerato is pronounced as you might expect, sort of “shake-er-AH-toe”.
I know it sounds funny but that’s the way it is.

Turkey Pesto Meatballs

I worked at a pizza place in Ocean City (MD) during the summer right before I started college.
It was called "Circus Pizza" and it was owned by an Italian guy and his Russian wife. 
They ran the place like it was their own home. They offered honest Italian dishes and a really good thin-crust pizza. They were both adorable and arguably the best employers I've worked for.
One night after service was over and everyone had gone home, I started making tomato sauce for the next day in one of those huge commercial mixers. Brilliant me decides that if the sauce takes 10 minutes to mix on speed 1, it should only take 1 minute to mix on speed 10.
I patted myself on the back for coming up with such a smart idea and happily turned the dial to 10. Only for a second.

Classic Basil Pesto

I'm a real snob when it comes to pesto — only fresh homemade, thank you very much and a strict no to anything coming from a jar.
Oddly enough, I haven’t posted my recipe for Classic Basil Pesto on TIY yet.
I wonder why.
I made Kale Pesto, Avocado Pesto, Avocado-Spinach Pesto, Radicchio Pesto but not Basil Pesto.
Weird things happen on this blog.

Honey Roasted Plums with Thyme and Olive Oil

The heatwaves are coming and we all know it.
When it gets hot outside the last thing I want to do is turn on the oven.
My apartment is always hot during summer months and turning on the oven would make it the hottest place on the planet.
Not really, obviously, but that’s what it feels like when it’s 100 degrees outside and the oven is cranking at 400 degrees for half an hour.
I have A/C (not central, just a window units) so I can cool the apartment down, but I feel it’s a total waste of money — I don’t know about yours, but my electric bill is bad enough already.
That being said, I don’t completely avoid the oven during the summer, but I try not to use it as much.

It's Friday, Laugh A Little!

Hello friends.
Today I have no recipe for you.
Today it’s Friday — the day we’ve been waiting for all week — so I’m doing something a little different.
Today, I’m celebrating Friday.

Zoodles Aglio Olio e Peperoncino

Spaghetti aglio, olio, e peperoncino is an awesome Italian dish — spaghetti made with garlic, olive oil, and hot chili pepper. Served with chopped parsley and a sprinkling of Parmesan cheese.
It’s well loved because it’s so easy and inexpensive to make, and it’s a perfect solution when you’re in a crunch.
For instance, when you’re starving after a night out and you’ve got nothing in your fridge or you don’t feel like getting greasy food from the nearby Deli, making this spaghetti is a cinch.
Even when it’s 3am and you’ve had a few too many.
You know, just to throw a random example out there.
And just for the record, making spaghetti aglio, olio e peperoncino late at night is pretty common in in Italy — according to my friend Francesco.

Eggplant Rollatini

I have the distinct feeling my Macbook Pro is going to die soon.
I purchased it in September 2008. So I know it is old, but everything works perfectly fine — except for the battery which died after two years and that was about it.
However, two months ago I started getting tons of freezing.
It happens sporadically and it doesn’t seem to be a direct result of me doing anything in particular. The screen will just suddenly spaz out and then the whole Macbook will freeze up.
Every time that happens, I freak out.
I religiously back-up to an external drive with Time Machine every week, so I felt pretty good about not losing any data. Still, I freak out as it feels like the laptop is going to explode or something.
Other than the freezing, the Macbook works perfectly. It is not slow, but the fan starts to run continually, about 1 minute after start-up, and very loudly too.
It feels like the laptop is about to take-off or that it’s hyperventilating.

Chopped BLT Salad

Knowing that you should avoid certain food is different from not wanting a certain food.
For instance, I don’t want escargots because I don’t really like escargots.
But I avoid eating at fast food restaurants, not because I don’t want to, but because I want to be healthy.
Makes sense?

Easy Baked Parmesan Zucchini

My mobile phone fell in the toilet Friday morning.
To be precise, I accidentally dropped my phone down the toilet.
It was 7am, I was ridiculously grumpy, and I was checking my emails. There were so many annoying ones I got upset and I accidentally dropped the phone (read this as throw it..ugh!)
I immediately retrieved it, wiped it off, and powered it down.
I ran to the get the hair-dryer and I blow-dried it for a couple minutes (I didn't realize that the heat is more damaging than helpful — so if it ever happens to you, don't do it!)
Nothing happened.
I was so shocked, I wasn't sure which emotion I was feeling. I wanted to be angry, but I couldn’t. It was so surreal, I was laughing hysterically.
You hear about people dropping their phones in the toilet, sink, pool, sea, lake, cup of coffee, bowl of soup, but you never think you’re going to be one of them.