Recipe inspiration can come from the strangest of places. Sometimes it’s a commercial, at times a Food Network show will spark inspiration, and sometimes, a trip to the movie theater creates an idea that lingers for days and days.

Yes, a movie theater sparked this ingenious idea. This past weekend when we went to see The Avengers, but before I made the movie-inspired chicken shawarma, Adam and I enjoyed the amazingness that is the iPic theater. Gourmet food, wine kiosks, and cushy seats made for a truly wonderful movie experience.

Our dinner was a shared turkey panini. But not just any turkey panini, but a delicious grilled concoction of smoked turkey, gooey brie, and apple butter. And this combination lingered in my brain, and kind of morphed into a more spring-appropriate sandwich.

I’m sure I’m not the first one to do it, but I assure you, this recipe is my own. I’m absolutely thrilled with how they turned out, and am already looking forward to making them again and again this summer!

**WARNING**

**If you have yet to see The Avengers and are planning to, within this post are spoilers!**

**Seriously. I’m going to talk about the super-secret scene at the very end of the credits.**

**No angry comments that I “OMG GAVE SOMETHING AWAY”**

**You have been warned**

Growing up where I did, I was exposed to all sorts of cultures’ foods at a very early age. It wasn’t rare for me, as a fairly young kid, to request to go to the Mediterranean place for lunch on a weekend for hummus and baba gannouj. Bok choy and pork fried rice at a Chinese friend’s house? Yes please! Spaetzle at my German friend’s house? Absolutely.

Back to that Mediterranean food… I loved the stuff. We had this place up the street called Pita Inn where, as I just said, we’d go for hummus and baba gannouj. The place is still there and has expanded to multiple locations now, and we still go for hummus, baba gannouj, falafel, and chicken shawarma. My favorite thing there? A plate of hummus, topped with chicken shawarma.

What the heck is chicken shawarma? Imagine the most flavorful and juicy grilled (almost charred) chicken, cut up into little pieces, then placed in a warm pita with lettuce, tomato, onion, and a tangy tahini-yogurt sauce. In a word: delicious.

It wasn’t until a new Middle Eastern restaurant opened near Adam and my house that I experienced a shawarma rolled up in a thin wheat pita bread, kind of like a burrito. The super-thin pita bread made a perfect vehicle for the shawarma fillings.

Why all this talk about shawarma? We saw The Avengers over the weekend, and at one point, Iron Man says something about going for shawarma. “I don’t know what it is, but I’d like to try it,” he says. And then the credits roll, and roll and roll… and then we see the heroes, seated around a small table, eating shawarma.

I haven’t laughed that hard in a really really long time. Thor still had his cape on! And upon leaving the theater, Adam and I both wanted shawarma.

So I made it! I’ve eaten enough of it in my life that I could figure out what went into it, and its amazing tangy sauce.

When I initially invited my mom, stepdad, sister and family-in-law over for a Mother’s Day brunch, I was thinking I’d do a standard lox, bagels, and cream cheese thing. It’s a Jewish family brunch staple, and I figured I’d make it “blog-worthy” by making my own bagels.

And then I realized: my mom and Adam’s mom are worth more than a mostly store-bought meal. They deserve home-cooked food, presented beautifully, and served at a festive table. So I turned to my (and most people’s) inspiration: Pinterest. I pinned idea after idea for brunch, and, as Adam’s mom exclaimed when everything was served: “you’re crazy!”

I have a lot of photos, so I’ll keep this not too wordy. All the recipes will be linked under the photos, so you’ll be able to make them for yourself!

An appropriately pink table setting, complete with swirly paper straws from Sur la Table

We started with a spring and summer favorite around here, watermelon lemonade, made with a super-red seedless watermelon.

Rainbow fruit skewers, inspired by Lizz’s post. I used raspberries, cara-cara oranges, pineapple, kiwi, blueberries, and purple grapes

Miniature German pancakes, sprinkled with powdered sugar, and served with cherry pie filling and lemon wedges.

Cinnamon french toast skewers with fresh raspberries and strawberries

Baked eggs in homemade bread bowls (I used that recipe with white flour instead of wheat) with white cheddar and tarragon

Leigh brought a cinnamon and cranberry cake, and I made a giant plate of bacon as well. In all, I’m calling it a success!

Mom, I love you and am thankful every day for you!! <3

Sautéed thin-cut chicken breasts stuffed inside a classic spanakopita recipe made with extra feta cheese

I’m not usually one to post a salad recipe because, really, a salad isn’t a recipe. It’s a bunch of green stuff thrown in a bowl, usually topped with a bunch of stuff to make it sort of unhealthy, and then topped with more stuff to make it even unhealthier.

I tend to think that a salad post can be a bit of a cop-out. “Hey, look at this green stuff I threw in a bowl!” But honestly, I think many of us can agree that the dressing on a salad is what can make or break a meal. A great salad with a mediocre dressing can just be well, mediocre. However, a bunch of greens with a stellar dressing can be ridiculously delicious.

In an attempt to duplicate a favorite restaurant salad without breaking the calorie bank, I came up with this combination:

• One head butter (bibb) lettuce, cut into bite-sized pieces
• Baby spinach
• 1/2 granny smith apple, diced
• 1/2 bosc pear, diced
• 2″ piece jicama, grated
• 2 ounces crumbled bleu cheese
• 1/2 chicken breast, diced
• Creamy avocado dressing (recipe to follow)

The lettuce and spinach were slightly bitter, the fruit tart and crunchy, the jicama sweet, and the bleu cheese tangy, all brought together by the creaminess of this delicious dressing. Feel free to substitute the dairy milk for your favorite non-dairy milk to make it vegan.

Creamy Avocado Salad Dressing

Cook Time: none

Ingredients (4 servings)

• 2 small avocados
• 1/2 cup lowfat milk
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/2 teaspoon dried basil
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon dried chives
• 1/4 cup lemon juice

Instructions

Peel and pit the avocados.

Add all the ingredients to a blender and blend until smooth.

Use on your favorite salad, or place in a jar and refrigerate for up to 5 days.

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Now do you understand the “green on green” title? Green lettuce, green apple, green pear, and lovely creamy green dressing.

I’m loving these meal salads… I guess salad posts aren’t a cop out after all!

Occasionally, Adam and I fall victim to the very problem that this little blog is supposed to solve: What the heck to we eat for dinner?

Usually, I can throw something mediocre together with what’s in the house, but when the rogue head of cauliflower has gone mushy, and there’s not a leafy green to be found, sometimes we call in the emergency forces. Or rather, Adam runs out to the store for a few ingredients to complete a meal.

Bread. Cheese. Ground beef. Green beans. You know, the essentials. It had been decided, dinner was going to be an old diner classic: Patty melts.

A patty melt, as I can best explain it, is the perfect marriage between the juicy burger and grilled cheese sandwich. The only thing that makes it even more special is the addition of caramelized onions and, if you like it, a dip of Thousand Island dressing. I’m a weirdo and don’t like Thousand Island. Oh well.

I hesitate to call this a recipe, as it’s one of my “throw a bunch of things together” kind of meals, but I would definitely call it a process. I’ll even number the steps for you!

1. Thinly slice two medium yellow onions. Heat a frying pan with a Tablespoon of olive oil. Add the onions to the pan, lower the heat to medium, and sprinkle the onions with 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Allow to cook slowly until a lovely caramelly brown. This might take 20 to 25 minutes.
2. Make your favorite burgers. I used a simple 1 pound of beef, 1 egg, 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder, 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce. The key here is to make your burgers fairly thin and cook them a bit less than you’d normally.
3. Brush a bit (less than 1/2 teaspoon) olive oil on one side of two pieces of bread.
4. Assemble your sandwich as such with the oiled sides of the bread facing outward:
5. Heat a frying pan over medium heat and place the assembled sandwich in the pan. Cook until the cheese is melted and the bread is crispy, covering if necessary.
6. Serve and devour.

Easy enough, yes?

We enjoyed our blue-plate specials with some roasted fresh green beans and a hefty side of ketchup.

To say we enjoyed them is an understatement. Let’s look at another photo of the deliciousness, shall we?

These were messy, gooey, drippy and delicious, and oddly comforting. And the fact that they had melty cheese and sweet caramelized onions only made them better.

And for those of you wondering, we used Healthy Life low-carb bread which was the perfect size and thickness for these sandwiches. Anything heartier or thicker would’ve made these more of a burger sandwich and less of a melt… and the melt is part of the glory that is the patty melt.

So make one, and enjoy!

Roasted garlic was one of the very first “fancy” foodie items I can remember liking. It was 1991, and at the ripe young age of 11, I went on a lunch date with my mom after joining her at one of her graduate school classes.

We were conveniently in downtown Chicago, and even back in the early ’90s, the food scene was hopping! Down the street from my mom’s grad school building was a lovely little French restaurant called Bistro 110. I’d never been to a French restaurant (that I knew of) and my mom told me that something really delicious was coming with the bread. Minutes later, a basket of warm bread and a plate with olive oil and a head of funny-looking garlic arrived.

I was used to “normal” garlic.

It was something that was crushed or chopped and used sparingly in recipes. It wasn’t something that was served to me whole and on a plate. Much to my surprise, my mom took a knife and dug out one of the cloves, spread it on a slice of bread, and handed it to me. And upon taking a bite, I was changed forever. Any time I had an opportunity to eat roasted garlic, I would. And then I learned how to make it (cut the top off a head of garlic, drizzle sparingly with olive oil, wrap in foil, roast at 425° until soft) and it’s been a regular in recipes ever since.

One of the side effects of this whole “watching what I eat” thing is that I’m much more aware of the balance of protein, carbs, fat, and calories in any given recipe. In the past, the sauce recipe below would’ve been on a bowl of pasta with perhaps a piece of chicken. I bulked it up by using low-carb and high-fiber pasta and about two pounds of broccoli!

A lovely mixture of successes and failures at today’s Cupcake Club!

When a theme gets stuck in my head, it gets stuck there for quite some time. Some of you may remember the chili phase of 2010. Some may also remember the casserole days, the burger days, and even more recently, the cupcake days.

With our theme of “Green or Greece” for our last Traveling Pans meeting, I had a major taste for Greek food for days before and after. One of my go-to cooking blogs, Kalyn’s Kitchen, fed this hunger (pun intended) by posting a recipe for Ground Beef Gyro Meatballs served in lettuce wraps.

I pinned the recipe and knew that I’d be making it soon, and when we got ground beef on killer sale not too long ago, it was on! There was one problem: Kalyn used a pre-made Spice House Greek seasoning mix to season her meat, and I didn’t have that. Luckily I have a fairly good knowledge of spice combinations that are appropriate for various food cultures (would you want a post on that?), so I made up my own.

I can’t believe I’d never used butter lettuce before. It’s delicious and sturdy, and didn’t fall apart under the weight of the fillings. I went back for seconds and pretty much made a meatball salad. The flavors were right on, and if I hadn’t known better, I would’ve thought I was eating a traditional gyro.

Adam ate his meatballs in a whole wheat pita instead of on a lettuce wrap, and he agreed that the flavor was right on. I did leave out the onion from Kalyn’s recipe, which I may put in next time. And there will be a next time! Perhaps a burger phase will begin again and I’ll make gyro burgers…

For now though, we have about 15 meatballs left… I can’t wait for leftovers!

It had been an extremely long time since I’d seen my Traveling Pans sisters… since Thanksgiving, to be exact!

We kept planning dinners, then life would get in the way and they’d either be canceled or I wouldn’t be able to make it. I promised myself that the next dinner, I’d go, no matter what. We had determined a while ago that, rather than sticking with a culture or country for our “theme”, we’d instead go for something a bit more challenging. We’d work with an ingredient that was new or intimidating, creating even more truly amazing meals.

This month’s theme was two-fold: the flavors of the Mediterranean combined with a sign of Spring: GREEN! Our dishes were to include one or the other or both aspects of the theme, and be extremely veggie-heavy. My mom was hosting, so as usual, her adorable cats helped her to set up.

While we waited for the other sisters to arrive, I warmed up my spanakopita. While it’s something I’d made before, I used a more authentic phyllo dough, and opted for a traditional recipe over a “healthified” one.

Soon, everyone was present and accounted for, and Eo surprised us with what was called a “Screaming Greenie”, a basil and licorice drink that was surprisingly refreshing and delicious, and most importantly, bright green!

My mom made two of her amazing veggie dishes: lentil salad

And her perfected version of brussels sprouts afelia:

Tina brought two things as well, one of which was a red-wine infused, fig, nut and orange-stuffed bread:

And red-wine braised veal meatballs with ground pistachios, almonds, and pine nuts.

Eo brought, in addition to her Screaming Greenies, a delicious dish of green beans topped with cayenne-candied bacon.

Emily made something called “spoon fruit”, made from loads of oranges and tons of spices, which was then spread on toasted croissants, and topped with feta, toasted almonds, and thyme.

Amy, always the adventurer, made delicious garlicky octopus and baklava. They weren’t served together, obviously.

We sat down to eat and as usual, the conversation flowed easily, chatting about everything from my sister’s recent trip to the James Beard house in NYC to cook a dinner with her executive chef to the relative attractiveness of John Hamm.

Leigh surprised us with some beautiful salted-caramel-filled chocolates…

Since so much of the meal was vegetables, I left feeling satisfied, both physically and emotionally… I just LOVE these women that I’m lucky enough to hang out with every 6 weeks or so! I can’t wait until our next get-together!