What to do with an over abundance of veggies!!

I just can’t resist buying veggies this time of year, I’m happy when my frig is stocked full of them, but I think I went a little overboard this past week! Knowing I had a busy week and weekend ahead I knew I had to cook these up, so I decided to fire up my grill.

I call this a Grilled Vegetable Torte, it’s so easy to prepare, it has a WOW presentation, and it goes fantastic with grilled meats. After grilling your veggies, which have all been brushed with olive oil, salt and pepper, layer them into an oiled spring form pan, any size will do it just depends how many veggies you have.

Each layer a different color, a different veg that is topped off with shredded parm or in this case pecorino romano, you might want to put a few basil leaves in between too. Repeat untill you get to the top. Press veggies down.

Cover and wrap the bottom of your pan with foil and place on a baking sheet in a 400F oven.
Bake for about a half hour, giving it enough time to melt the cheese which acts like “glue” and holds the veggies together when you slice it. Let it cool, unmold and eat it at room temperature. Garnish with shredded romano or your favorite cheese on top.

Don’t cut your veggies into small pieces, you’ll want to cut them into nice big slices it’s easier to layer that way.

Believe me it cuts into perfect wedges, just use a sharp serrated knife and take your time, pulling it out with a pie spatula. I would have showed you a wedge but I took this whole thing to a friends house for lunch, minus my camera.

Adding some grilled veggies and ripe tomatoes to orzo pasta along with fresh herbs and grilled shrimp tossed in a fresh lemon and olive oil dressing, makes this a light summer pasta salad.

Tomato Bread, this has great flavor and goes with just about anything! Take a good quality baguette, and scoop out a well down the middle, stick in some grape tomatoes, drizzle with olive oil, and a sprinkling of salt and pepper, place on a baking sheet and bake in a 350 degree oven till tomatoes are soft around 30 min. When the tomatoes pop the juice runs into the bread and flavors it. Garnish with fresh basil.
Hope these ideas help you out a little in using up any of your veggies you have laying around!
Buon Appetito!!

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Italian Style Portobello Burgers!

We all get pressed for time and need something we can cook fast every now and then. This is my idea of fast food!! Something I can take out of the frig, it doesn’t have to be defrosted, I don’t have to mix it with anything, it can all be cooked on the grill, with no pots or pans to clean, and it just takes minutes to cook!

Not only is this super fast, the flavors going on here are so good together, believe me you won’t even miss the meat!

I take everything out to my grill on a baking sheet all sliced and ready to go, cut fairly thick slices of the tomato and onion so it stands up to the grill when you flip it. With the portobello’s I usually clean the gills out, that’s just my personal preference, you don’t have to.


Everything is brushed with an herb flavored olive oil which takes a couple seconds to make by mixing some fresh or dry basil, with a clove of crushed fresh garlic into some olive oil with some salt and pepper. You can tell the portobello’s are done when they shrink and flatten. Be sure to add your cheese so it has time to melt, here I used provolone.

When everything is done toast up your buns, we like ciabatta rolls so that’s what I used, but use whatever you like, just get them a nice and golden color.

To assemble the “burger” :

Spread some leftover warmed marinara or pizza sauce on the grilled bread.

Layer with some arugula

Place portobello, grilled onions, provolone cheese, and the grilled tomatoes on top and serve immediately!


Buon Appetito!

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Filbert Gateau with Praline Buttercream ( Daring Bakers)

Filbert genoise, praline paste, praline butter cream frosting, sugar syrup, apricot glaze, and a ganache! Phew!! Those were all the components to this months Daring Baker challenge.

I must say It all got off to a pretty good start, I mean my cake itself (the genoise), came together perfectly, it rose nice and I was able to get 3 layers evenly cut.

I think the problem started here, although it doesn’t look that bad, I think I overcooked the sugar which turned into a bitter tasting caramel.

I proceeded to make the praline paste by putting the brittle into my food processor and just letting it go till it turned paste like.

I had no problem with this either, It looks pretty good doesn’t it?

Little did I know at the time that the bitterness of the caramel was going to affect the whole flavor of the cake!

Unfortunately that’s what happened, the whole cake had a bitter taste to it, even my Hubby who has a enormous sweet tooth couldn’t even finish his one piece, believe me, he wanted it to be good!!

So needless to say I was very glad that I halved the recipe. I used a 6×3″ pan, and stuck pretty much to the flavorings.

Oh, and my ganache, well that’s another story, I definitely need help in that department!

Mine never got thick enough it turned out more like a glaze, I probably should have added more chocolate to it, but I wanted to get it done as I was starting to lose day light.

I tried to cover a multitude of sins with my “fancy scroll work,” lol, which I did “Sandra Lee” style, by filling a zip lock bag with the frosting and then snipping the corner like a pastry bag.

Hey, you win some and you lose some! I don’t think “fancy cakes” are my forte’, but that’s what being a Daring Baker is all about, I definitely challenged myself! You should have seen my totaled kitchen, that would have been a great photo! lol

I want to thank our dear host this month Chris, over at Mele Cotte, go over there and you can check out the whole recipe. It was 5 pages long when I printed it out.

And don’t forget to check out the other Daring Bakers cakes, I’m sure there are some gorgeous ones out there!!

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