Another pressure cooker adventure! Also another Skinnytaste recipe. We had this with cauliflower mash. Definitely one worth repeating.

Another pressure cooker adventure! Also another Skinnytaste recipe. We had this with cauliflower mash. Definitely one worth repeating.

So we got a pressure cooker. It was kind of intimidating at first, but lucky for us, our friend Missy had started this craze, so I jumped on her bandwagon and learned how to use the pressure cooker from her (seeing a trend here? Missy taught me how to cook!). We love both this recipe and the pressure cooker! Easy, quick, great options – definitely a good purchase. This was a winner of a recipe from Skinny Taste, though I should have thickened the sauce before serving. We had this with some sautéed zucchini. Awesome!

My friend Talia and I went to the winery next to the barn, and of course had to try anything cheese related…which included a feta and red pepper dip. It was so good that I had to try to reproduce it! It took a few false starts, but it came out well. We served this for our Kentucky Derby party.

This was a pretty pasta salad for our Kentucky Derby party this year. Colorful and it had a lot of flavor. And of course pasta salad is always great for a crowd.

Although I am not much of a dessert person, I do try to have something on hand for our parties – and a pecan pie seemed just right for our Kentucky Derby party this year. Easy and it makes a pretty pie, too. This comes from Smitten Kitchen.

This is one of my favorite homemade hummus recipes – great every time. I have used both dry and canned chickpeas and it’s been good either way. I also add a sprinkling of sumac when it is done. Great with veggies and pita chips.

This was a really fun and tasty way to get some fish in – I’m pretty bad about remembering to defrost it and cook it, even though we both love it! This was a Cooking Light recipe, I used Mahi for the fish, and we had it with brussels sprouts.

My favorite baked ziti recipe – easy and always awesome. I usually just make it with ground beef and season a lot, but it would also work with ground turkey or sausage, as the original recipe (from Smitten Kitchen) suggests. We’ve also done this with shirataki and liked it just as much. 🙂

My friend Missy is doing a meatball cooking challenge this year, and I was thus inspired to make Italian wedding soup, because hooray meatballs. I used Ina’s recipe, because I’ve had luck with it in the past. The (turkey) meatballs were a little bland, but I also didn’t have every single thing on hand. Still really good, especially leftover!

I found this recipe on the back of a chicken sausage package, believe it or not. And it was REALLY awesome. I wanted to eat the entire thing in one go. I used a lot more sauce than it recommended, and it was homemade sauce from our own tomatoes last summer, but I think this would be awesome with sauce from a jar too. Lots of veggies make it really great. Definite make again.
