I like to cook, I just don’t get the chance very often. When I do, it’s usually just for two, so it isn’t usually a whole meal. I try to find a relatively Starr friendly main dish and we are good!

Since Starr is home for the summer, there might be more cooking than usual so I thought I might try to share once in a while. I didn’t take pictures, I’m sure that they would pale comparison to Ree’s at The Pioneer Woman, Ryan’s at This is Reverb or some of the many food bloggers that I have fallen in love with. I am NOT a food blogger, like I am NOT a music blogger, but when my pain levels allow, I do like to cook occasionally! I have been trying to transition into a more vegetarian diet, but while Starr is home it is cheaper and easier to include meat. However, I will be trying to sneak in as many vegetarian dishes as she will allow!

So far this week, I made the following:

Jerk Style Turkey Burgers with a side of Fingerlings with Sliced Garlic. Starr was skeptical about the turkey burgers, but loved them! The potatoes? Best ever, she said.

Jerk Style Turkey Burgers:

It started with this Rachel Ray recipe for Jerky Turkey burgers with Papaya Salsa. I didn’t have many of the ingredients so I went with pressed garlic, red bell pepper finely diced, onion finely diced, salt and pepper, some nutmeg, allspice, ginger powder and a decent sprinkle of jerk seasoning. I didn’t measure a thing, so who knows if I can recreate them in the future? I didn’t make the salsa at all. I served them on toasted buns with a slice of colby cheese.

Fingerlings with Sliced Garlic:

Adapted from a recipe I found the other day in this cookbook, Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone. I made just enough for us and didn’t follow the recipe exactly, they were basically roasted potatoes with garlic and a little butter. Tasty.

Last night we (I mean I!) made pizza, I used the recipe for White Pizza that I found in Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone. I made one white pizza and one regular cheese pizza with Starr’s favorite sauce…just in case. She loved both!

Starr’s Favorite Pizza Sauce

I never measure anything, but it goes a little like this.

1/2 cup Prego Traditional Spaghetti Sauce
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 t honey
sprinkle of basil
sprinkle of cayenne

Stir and taste. She loves the hint of sweet along with the heat of the cayenne, so I make sure I can taste both. Adjust this to your tastes. I topped the sauce with fresh mozzarella slices and baked at 500 degrees until bubbly and browned in just a few spots. I didn’t add fresh basil to this after baking, but we both thought it would have been lovely if I had.

White Pizza

The White Pizza was just the homemade pizza dough brushed with olive oil, topped with fresh mozzarella slices, brushed again with olive oil. Baked until just bubbly, adding a sprinkle of parmesan and baked just a minute longer. After removing it from the oven I added fresh ground black pepper and fresh basil chiffanade. We will be doing this again!!

I am not a gourmet, healthy, all natural, organic, beans and whole wheat type of cook. And since it is just the two of us, or even more recently, just me for dinner, I don’t do much (or anything!) in the way of side dishes. They are just too much work as well as a waste of food. For the things that I do make; I don’t use boxed meals, I like to use real food, fresh garlic and vegetables, and real butter, although sometimes using a canned soup or pasta sauce as an ingredient.

My brother, DJ, has been asking more and more lately “what’s for dinner?” So, I thought I might include a little postscript once in a while about what was for dinner, a link to the recipe if there was one and maybe a thumbs up or down from Starr.

Last night I made my version of Chicken Panini. Starr loved it and told me so repeatedly. I cooked the chicken using this basic recipe Italian Chicken, only instead of pounding out the chicken breasts, I butterflied them, slicing them in half making thinner portions. Putting the cooked chicken in between two slices of bread along with some mozzarella cheese and grilling them until browned and melty on my grill pan as I don’t own a sandwich press, but I did give the sandwich a good and hard press with my spatula!