Hummus and Edamame Pasta with Caramelized Tomatoes

This dish was the last meal that we made in our kitchen before we tore it out. On Saturday morning our old kitchen looked like this:

Now it looks like this:

We've got a lot of work to do but I can't wait to share the progress with you and hoping it turns out as great as it is in my head!

Oxtail Ragu and Fennel Pollen Pasta

Ready to experiment with some new ingredients today? One of my favorite things about cooking is discovering new things and challenging myself to make something that I might not normally try.

This week, the Virtual Potluck team is taking you on a Spice Adventure and I think you're really going to enjoy it. Donna from Cookistry has the roundup page where you can follow along with the whole team. We're working with Savory Spice Shop and each of us is focusing an a different area of the shop.

Savory Spice Shop is one of the most comprehensive spice stores online. They not only provide fantastic products but they also have a wealth of knowledge on where the spices come from and how to best use them to make some amazing food. I found so much useful information and loved just browsing through the store.

Cooking The Market

One of our favorite date nights is to go volunteer at Kitchen In The Market, a local commercial kitchen and cooking school. When I was thinking of ideas to submit for a Foodbuzz 24x24 event, I immediately thought of taking a spin on one of their most popular cooking classes; Cooking the Market.

The idea behind the class is to create a meal based on whatever is currently available in the market, no matter what season it is. It's a fantastic class that always produces something different and fun to cook.

It has been a beautiful, early spring here for us Minnesotans but we're still not into the full on farmers markets quite yet. That doesn't mean that there's no local product available however. One of my goals in sharing this event with some of our friends was to show them the amazing products we have available right here in our local area, all year round as well as get them excited about the great food season to come!

Emeril's One Pot Blogger Party - Butternut Squash Lasagna

Starting today, I am participating with 19 other bloggers around the country in reviewing Emeril Lagasse's new cook book Sizzling Skillets and Other One-Pot Wonders. For the next three weeks we'll be cooking through his new book working up to its release on September 27th. We'll be cooking through at least nine recipes, talking technique and  playing with some pretty fun ingredients. And I'll even be giving away a copy of the book! 

Potato Gnocchi with Roasted Tomatoes and Gorgonzola Cream

Late last fall I had the opportunity to see Chef Tom Douglas do a cooking demonstration in Minneapolis as part of the Macy's Culinary Council. He's a great chef and owns multiple restaurants in the Seattle area so I was excited to see him and also participate in my first chef demo. I really enjoyed his presentation and ended up buying one of his cookbooks titled "Seattle Kitchen" that features many of the recipes from his restaurants.