I very much look forward to seeing you all at our new location!!!

To make the salad you’ll need the following:
5 Hard boiled eggs
Scallions
Shredded mozzarella and american cheeses (or any other types of shredded cheeses)
Mayonnaise (approximately 1 tbsp)

Grate the eggs and chop the scallions. Mix together the grated eggs, chopped scallions, shredded mozzarella cheese and shredded american cheese with mayonnaise. Chill slightly and serve. It’s that easy!

Bon Appetit!

1. Eggplant
2. Vegetable oil (for frying)
3. Mayonnaise
4. Garlic (mashed)
5. Tomato slices
6. 1 hard boiled egg
7. Shredded cheese (I used low moisture mozzarella)

Slice the eggplant, fry in vegetable oil until the slices soften. Remove onto a paper towel lined plate. Cover the fried eggplant slices with another paper towel to soak up the excess oil. In the meantime mash two cloves of garlic with a garlic masher and mix with a table spoon of mayonnaise. Brush each eggplant slice with the mayonnaise mixture, cover with a tomato slice. Brush each slice of tomato with the remaining mayonnaise mixture. Top with grated egg and shredded cheese. Chill slightly and serve. Yum!

Enjoy!

First Vika started with salmon minis.

Key ingredients:
1. European whole grain bread (can be found at Trader Joe’s)
2. Salmon
3. Creme fraiche
4. Chives
Top the bread with slices of salmon, creme fraiche and diced chives. Once plated, just serve.

Now for the Bruschetta minis

To create these tasty minis you will need the following ingredients and will need to take the following steps:
1. Tomatoes (Vika used cherry and pear tomatoes)
2. Fresh Basil
3. Olive Oil
4. Sun-dried tomatoes
5. Baguette
Cut up the baguette and toast slices of baguette in the oven. In the mean time, dice the fresh tomatoes, sun-dried tomatoes and basil. Mix together with olive oil. Top the toasted baguette slices with the tomato mixture and serve.

Try these minis and they’ll fly off the plate in the blink of an eye.

The peppers turned out delicious. Judge for yourselves.

Of course you are wondering, how can I have a stuffed pepper like this for dinner? Well, it’s actually relatively simple.

What you will need:
Canned Italian Tomatoes (I suggest buy chopped tomatoes, if you want to save on prep time)
Grated zucchini
Fresh mint
Grated Romano Picorino cheese
Extra virgin olive oil
Salt and ground black pepper
Chicken broth (I used 99% fat free)
Orzo, and of course
Sweet bell peppers

What you will want to do to turn these great ingredients into actual stuffed peppers is the following:
1. Mix canned tomatoes, grated zucchini, chopped fresh mint, cheese, olive oil, salt and ground pepper in a bowl.
2. Bring chicken broth to boil.
3. Add orzo to boiled chicken broth and boil for a few minutes (make sure the orzo is NOT fully cooked).
4. Once orzo is ready, sift it.
5. Mix the orzo with the ingredients you’ve already premixed in item 1 above and poor the left over chicken broth into the baking dish you’ll use for the stuffed peppers. To identify the dish, I chose a glass pie dish I had at home that was able to fit 6 peppers.
6. Remove all the insides of the bell peppers and discard.
7. Place the peppers in the baking dish and fill with the orzo mix.
8. Cover with foil and bake for 45 minutes at 400F. Than remove foil, cover the peppers with additional grated cheese and bake for another 15 minutes uncovered…

…and Voila!

I would recommend letting the peppers cool off slightly before serving. From personal experience they tasted better when they weren’t steaming hot.

Enjoy!

To create this all you’ll need is a baguette, cut up into slices, some beaten eggs and garlic powder. Dip the baguette slices in beaten eggs (mixed with garlic powder) and bake for 10-15 minutes at 325F.

To create the lovely salad, you’ll need some arugula leaves, tomatoes (cherry, pear, and/or grape), cucumbers and Balsamic Vinaigrette Dressing.

Cut up the vegetables, toss with the Balsamic Vinaigrette Dressing and serve with the toasties, topped with goat cheese.

Hope you enjoy! I can tell you I did!

My favorite coworker U. generously shared with me some of the fruits of her labor. She is an avid gardner and grows all kinds of fruits and vegetables in her garden. Earlier this week she surprised me with a few tomatoes from her garden. Fresh tomatoes off the vine are absolutely amazing.

What better way to enjoy freshly grown tomatoes? Caprese salad of course.

After work and a visit to the gym, my husband and I picked up some mozzarella cheese and I threw together a fresh caprese salad with some black pepper and virgin olive oil. For a hint of color…a mint leaf. I know, it’s not basil but it’s a twist on the traditional (and all I had at home).

Hubby helped with capturing this great dish, which by the way, was cleaned off the plate in it’s entirety within 10 minutes after this photo was taken.

Thanks U. for the tasty tomatoes!