Sugar & Spice by Celeste

Looking for something delicious to make over the weekend?   This sort of dish is perfect to make on a lazy Sunday afternoon, with some Italian music gently playing in the background.  It's worth the extra work...I promise! In searching for Lasagna recipes online, I came across this gem, and with a name like "World's Best Lasagna" I knew it better deliver.  And it does! This recipe has TWO kinds of meat in the sauce.  Sweet Italian sausage and ground turkey (or beef) are both added, and the sauce simmers for a good 1.5 hours to really make the flavors sing.  I chose turkey, just so it would be a little leaner and healthier. Pull the kiddos in to help assemble the lasagna.  They will love helping with the pasta layers! Enjoy! World's Best Homemade Lasagna Adapted from: allrecipes.com Ingredients: 1 pound sweet Italian sausage ¾ pound ground turkey OR beef ½ cup minced onion 2 cloves garlic, crushed 1 (28 ounce) can crushed tomatoes 2 (6 ounce) ca...

After traveling to Italy back in 2009 and having *REAL* Italian pizza, we were ruined forever.  Our pizza standards were immediately raised, and once home, we knew we had to try and recreate the pure pizza perfection we experienced in Italy. At almost every restaurant we went to,  Pizza Quattro Stagioni (or Four Seasons Pizza), was on the menu.  This type of pizza has 4 distinct quadrants - traditionally prosciutto, artichoke hearts, olives and mushrooms.  Each section symbolizes the four seasons of the year.  We tried it once and fell in love, so we kept ordering it every chance we got.   Ever since, that has been our favorite to make at home (and a good ole' Pepperoni Pizza has now been added to our pizza nights for the little one).  Instead of separating the ingredients into sections, I cheat a little and spread each of the four ingredients over the entire pizza.  I love the flavor combinations and having them all in each bite is just so s...

I don't know what it is, but I've seen recipes for "burst" tomatoes in pasta several times lately.  It's like the culinary fairies were trying to send me some sort of subliminal message.  When I came across this fabulous looking recipe in the August issue of Southern Living magazine, I thought, "That's it!  I have to try this!"   Burst tomatoes sound fancy and elaborate.  The truth is, they are simply mixed with olive oil and freshly minced garlic and placed underneath the broiler until they "burst" and become beautifully charred.  The process only takes 5-10 minutes. Other than that, all you have to do to enjoy this delicious dish is cook the pasta and mix the remaining ingredients in a large bowl.  Easy peasy. I used a gorgeous yellow heirloom tomato for the additional tomato the recipe calls for.  It added a beautiful contrast of colors that made Brad and I want to dive right in.  I adore heirloom tomatoes this time of yea...

Let's face it...While leftovers make for a fast and easy dinner, they can be very boring.  So, I love dishes that allow you to take the leftovers and create a delicious yet different dinner on the 2nd night.  This recipe is a fantastic example. I took the remaining orecchiette pasta and spinach pesto from this Chicken with Spinach Pesto and whipped up this easy weeknight dinner for two.  It makes for an easy-peasy dinner that's filled with flavor (not to mention - Popeye would be so proud of all that spinach!). You simply cook some orecchiette pasta and stir in spinach pesto, baked chicken, and diced tomatoes.  It pairs perfectly with a loaf of crusty French bread and a glass of pinot noir. Easy meals like this are the theme around our house lately.  We are in the process of doing some minor renovations to our home, which has turned out to be a lot of fun, yet a time-consuming process.  So far, we've installed a beautiful cream-colored subway tile...

  Is a big plate of hearty, delicious pasta ever a bad thing?   I think not!  While shopping the aisles the other day at the grocery store, Brad said, "Baked Ziti sure would be good for dinner soon."  Baked Ziti?  That DID sound yummy.  And wouldn't you know it...We made our way to the pasta aisle and the boxes of Ziti Rigati were buy one get one free.  It was pasta-fate...If there is such a thing. To make the dish a little healthier, we decided ground turkey would be a good substitute for ground beef.  I love cooking with ground turkey lately.  It tastes great and is indeed a much healthier option.  That's a no-brainer, if you ask me. This dish comes together in no time.  I added bell pepper, onion and mushrooms to the turkey as it cooked.  These veggies added a nice, fresh flavor.  As for the marinara sauce, just use your favorite brand.  I happened to buy Barilla.  Or, if you're f...

  I'm so excited that the new Sugar & Spice by Celeste Facebook fan page hit 500 fans yesterday!  Thank you all for the support...You guys are awesome! To celebrate, how about a giveaway ?!  The awesome folks at Amazing Taste recently sent me some goodies to give to one lucky blog reader.  I use this brand of spices all the time and am very happy to be able to give a great selection to the winner.   The thing I love about these spices is that they make my life a lot easier on busy weeknights.  They're an easy way to add tons of flavor without spending long in the kitchen.  Plus, they are all natural and contain no MSG.       I recently used the Chicken Seasoning in a pasta dish, which turned out to be a new favorite.  I just adore cooking pasta dishes.  It's fun to experiment with different veggies and ingredients, to come up with something delicious...yet uncomplicated!  The following recipe was...

If you're anything like me, a little grapeseed or olive oil paired with a fabulous mix of spices and freshly baked bread is the perfect appetizer to almost any meal.  Great quality oils can be so incredibly versatile, making the perfect addition to salad dressings, sauteed veggies and of course, dipping spices.  So, when I heard of a contest that Marx Foods was hosting to promote their new seed oils, I excitedly sent them an email right away.  They were looking to select 6 food bloggers to develop a recipe using the oil, and then write a candid review for the product. Fast forward a week or so, and I came home to find a package on my front doorstep.  Yay!  I had been selected!  I opened the box right away and was excited to find a bottle of Butternut Squash Seed Oil inside.  Butternut Squash Seed Oil?!?  That sounded amazing .  I didn't even know such a thing existed.  Once I made it to my kitchen, I opened up the bottle a...

Wait!!  Stop right there!  Don't let the "pea puree" in the title scare you away...haha. I know, I know...When we hear the two little words "pea puree," thoughts of irresistible deliciousness aren't usually the first things that come to mind.  However, maybe it's time to give peas a chance. This dish from Giada de Laurentiis will put all those unsavory thoughts that pea puree sometimes conjures up to rest.  After all, this isn't just any old pea puree...It's flavored with fresh mint, garlic and grated Parmesan.  Plus, when paired with the Lemon Brodetto and seared salmon, you've got one pretty amazing dinner on your table.   Every time I serve this dish, my husband insists that it looks (and tastes) like something you'd order in a 5-star restaurant.  It makes such a beautiful presentation, and you know what??  It's so EASY to make, too. The Lemon Brodetto has such a great flavor, and the pea puree sort of melts into the brodett...

A Platter of Figs by David Tanis is a beautifully written and conceived cookbook.  It's one of those cookbooks where you'll read the foreword (by Alice Waters in this case) and 20 pages later realize you're still going!  I particularly enjoyed reading about the beginnings of Chef Tanis' culinary career and about his time spent running the downstairs kitchen at Chez Panisse.  It must be nice to run such a wonderful kitchen 6 months out of the year and spend the other 6 meandering along the streets of Paris...What a dream!  (sigh). This particular book is filled with simple, but flavor-packed recipes.  One of my favorite things about this book is that it is divided into sections according to the seasons and the produce that's available at that time.  Chef Tanis is known for his uncomplicated recipes, which incorporate nothing but the finest ingredients.  After all, why should a recipe be complicated and fussy when simplicity is sometimes the best way...