Who You Gonna Call? DOMINOS

Bacon & pineapple = killer combo

I'm a lifer

We used to order from Mazzios all the time, then we started ordering from Pizza Hut, then Papa John's, and then finally just flipped back and forth between the three. Never did we order from Dominos. I have never cared for Dominos pizza, until recently. Ever since they revamped their recipe and came out with the famous "pizza tracker" I have been hooked. So hooked that I will NEVER order from Mazzios, Pizza Hut, or Papa John's ever again. Not because they aren't good, but because Dominos is better, way better. Let me start by saying that their cheesy bread is enough to make anybody break a diet(I am guilty of this,) their buffalo wings are extraordinary for a pizza place and their new pizza recipe is OUTSTANDING. Let me note that I have never really been a pizza person either, I have never craved it until recently. I now crave pizza. Weekly. Dominos has somehow perfected the pizza to a heavenly crispy crust, a perfect amount of cheese and their toppings are above any other. They always have my pizza at my door in less than 20 minutes. That's impressive. I order my pizza with pineapple and bacon, yes bacon. If you have never thought of putting bacon on your pizza, now you do. You're welcome. It's delicious. The crispiness of the bacon and the sweetness of the pineapple create the perfect taste, in my opinion. Give it a try, you won't order differently ever again.

Dominos Website

Shammy Says "You can call me shammy any day as long as I can shove Dominos in my face"

Any Dish That Begins With CARB...

How beautiful is this?

Carbonara is one of my favorite dishes to eat, but not to prepare. If any of you ask me the one dish I absolutely hate to make, I would vehemently answer "CARBONARA!" Every time I make it I feel like I am running a marathon with two broken legs. You need to have nearly all of your ingredients prepped and ready before you begin cooking your bacon, because once the bacon is done, you have about 30 seconds to chop it up, add the noodles, make the sauce and whisk in your eggs fast enough so that they don't scramble. However, on the bright side, once you're done being a maniac in the kitchen you get to sit down and enjoy this delicious meal, with a few glasses of wine of course. I have made numerous carbonara recipes, from healthy to heart attack on a plate. After making this particular recipe by Emeril Lagasse, I find that with food, along with everything else in life, "less is more." (Nacho cheese does not apply to that.) The healthy recipe I tried was by Bethenny Frankel--which was AMAZING by the way--but this one was better. She used turkey bacon instead of regular(which is sacreligious in my opinion,) soy milk instead of regular, and whole wheat pasta. My love for Bethenny runs deep and her recipe was very yummy so I will post a link to her recipe at the bottom as well. Some of the others I tried used heavy cream(whole milk works just as good in my opinion,) along with excessive amounts of fancy cheeses. This resulted in a dish that was too rich and when a dish is too rich you can say sayonara to leftovers, blegh! Ok now on to the winner, Emeril! I found this recipe after scouring the internet for an hour in search for the perfect carbonara recipe. His recipe seemed so simple and easy, that I almost didn't even make it. But Emeril is one of the greatest so I trusted his recipe and decided to go for it. His recipe was one of the only ones that didn't call for milk or cream. All it called for was bacon(duh,) spaghetti(I used linguine-which I find to be a perfect fit for carbonara,) garlic, parmesan of course, eggs and parsley(I sub'd for chives, because chives are the shit.) I also added cooked chicken, because my husband has to have his meat. The end result was so delicious that I was standing over the skillet(after two servings,) spooning more into my dome. Who has been there before? That's what I thought. It was creamy and delectable but not too overwhelming, the perfect combo. I will say that when you go for the leftovers add a bit of milk or water before re-heating it because it was a tad dry, but that still didn't stop me from devouring the entire bowl. Overall, this was the best carbonara recipe YET!

Emeril's Classic Spaghetti Carbonara - The winner

Bethenny's Low Fat Pasta Carbonara - If you are wanting a healthier version that still kicks ass

Shammy Says "BAM!"

If At First You Don't Succeed...

Can you guess which picture above is mine and which one is the original? Yeah, I can too. I am very upset with myself for how I screwed up this recipe. I am notorious for never getting a recipe right on the first try, the guilt and self loathing never goes away either. Sigh. Ok, this recipe could have been phenomenal, and super easy I might add. But I got ahead of myself and thought I would rush it instead of doing it right. First of all, the recipe calls for double the amount of filling, but I used half per the comments from the woman who posted the recipe. She explained that it was too much filling. WHY did I listen to this woman? There is no such thing as too much cream cheese filling! Lesson number one learned, moving along. My next mistake was making them and then refrigerating them overnight, big mistake--HUGE! Of course refrigerating it dried out the crust. The glaze was also too much, I should have halved that. So for any of you wanting to give this recipe a shot, and you really should because even my ruined disaster was still quite good, go ahead but follow these tips: use the suggested amount of filling, half the glaze recipe, and DO NOT REFRIGERATE! I will be buying the ingredients this week to make up for my blunder. 

Cheese Danish Recipe

Shammy Says "Don't mess with my cheese"

It's Like A Taste Explosion!

I have been wanting to make fish tacos for a long time now, a very long time. I always talk myself out of it at the last minute because I am daunted at making multiple things just for one dish, and I'm lazy. You can't have fish tacos that are worth a damn without the slaw, the pico de gallo or the fish(in my opinion.) So tonight I made the best decision of my life, and that was to create my own combination of recipes to make the perfect fish taco. I started with the Pioneer Woman because she is my idol. I found her shrimp taco recipe and got all the stuff to make the slaw and the shrimp. Here is where life happens...I finish preparing the slaw and put it in the fridge to chill, I go to make the shrimp and I peek at my can of specialty mexican sauce and see that it is over a year expired. This seems to be a recurring theme with me when I am making new recipes. As I was throwing my temper tantrum about nothing ever going my way when cooking, I suddenly realized that mexican/enchilada sauce actually didn't sound too appetizing along with the other ingredients anyway. So I took to my computer and googled "cilantro lime shrimp," clicked on the first one I saw, gave it a once over and headed back to the kitchen. It was SUPER easy, and turned out better than I expected. Most of the heavy lifting was in the preparation of the pico de gallo(my own recipe,) and the slaw prep. When I was done cooking the shrimp I warmed my corn tortillas and started topping them with the shrimp first, then slaw, then pico, then I squeezed fresh lime juice all over my tortilla(which is a non-negotiable step) and finally, topped with fresh avocado slices. So there you have it, my version of the perfect fish taco. I will post all recipes below just because I love you guys so much and want you to enjoy these just as much as I did! By the way I would like to note that this is NOT a normal pooh bear styled recipe, however like most of the things I have been cooking lately he devoured it and went back for seconds. I'm not sure if that means that his palate is expanding or if I am becoming quite the phenomenal cook, I prefer to go with the latter;)

Pioneer Woman Shrimp Tacos (Slaw Recipe)

Cilantro Lime Shrimp Recipe

Pico De Gallo Recipe

4-6 Roma tomatoes diced finely
Ton of cilantro
Half a large red onion chopped
Half a jalapeno chopped
1 clove garlic minced
Lime juice
Salt
*I added some white corn to mine

Top your corn tortillas(or if you prefer flour like my husband, those are fine too,) with the shrimp, then the slaw, then the pico de gallo, then squeeze some fresh lime juice over your taco and top with fresh avocado! YUMMY!

Shammy Says "Literally a burst of flavors all at once"

Enchi-lotta yumminess!

They looked like they were straight out of a restaurant

Perfectly topped with homemade guacamole and my very own life source SOUR CREAM

Where do I begin? Oh, hello there it's been a while since I've done a post and I have missed you! I have been seriously pondering creating a YouTube channel for myself to cook, eat, moan about how delicious the food is, and finally fulfill my dreams of eating and sharing my love for eating with others. Ok I lost track of what I was doing again...the Enchiladas! Yet another Pinterest delight, who needs cookbooks anymore? I saw this, and the picture immediately caught my attention, and then when I arrived at the website and read the woman's eager description of the recipe, it made me feel right at home. I will note that these were not the easiest, yet also not the most difficult enchiladas I have ever made, but they WERE the most delicious. Have I confused you yet? Let me clarify, it wasn't the easiest because it required a lot of cook time, and I'm a simple gal. I like "pop in the oven for 20 minutes and voila!" This was, cook, prepare, roll, pop in oven, remove from oven, cover with foil, blah blah blah. Don't get discouraged and stop reading, they were worth EVERY MINUTE of cook time. The good news is that there was virtually zero prep, all I did was mince some garlic(which you could even skip if you have minced garlic, I just happened to have fresh,) and chop up some cilantro. I am still attempting to come up with a few words to describe the taste. I really can't put my finger on it, so I will just say that when I eat something REALLY good, I go into a state of euphoria, yes I have mentioned this multiple times in previous posts but it really does happen. It happened, and it was just as I remember it. I reach the same state of utter satisfaction when I eat the Chicken Cobb Salad from Charleston's, my beloved Cream Squares from Daylight Donuts, Sour Cream, Buffalo Calamari from Sonoma, Veggie bowl from Chipotle, my Green Monster from Haruno, or anything from ITR. I could go on, clearly. But I won't. I'll stop there so you can go check out the recipe, print it out and make it for your family. ENJOY. 

Shredded Chicken Enchiladas Recipe

Shammy Says "Fifty Seven Thumbs Up"

My Own Delicious Creation

Last night I was making tacos, when I suddenly got the craving for a taco salad instead. Me choosing a salad over tacos is something that happens, well, never. The only thing I can attribute this craving to is having a delicious taco salad at my friend Fawna's house recently that she made using a pork loin and it was PHENOMENAL. As I was browning the ground beef I decided to add a packet of "cheesy" taco seasoning(which I had never tried up until last night and coincidentally will be using from now on.) It created a thicker sauce that I enjoyed much more than regular taco seasoning. After the beef was ready I tossed some romaine lettuce into a bowl, crumbled some whole grain tostitos scoops over the lettuce, added some meat, a large scoop of my homemade guacamole(recipe below,) shredded medium cheddar cheese, picante sauce and of course a very generous dollop of light sour cream. Now I state the specifics of all these ingredients because I think it makes a difference, so just do it. All of these ingredients worked surprisingly well together; even my husband(who is on somewhat of a strict diet at the moment) had me make him a bowl as well. I don't have a beautiful picture to accompany the recipe because I wasn't intending on blogging this, until after I finished licking my bowl. I will post an actual recipe below so you guys can make this for yourselves and taste just how delicious it is. ENJOY.

Shammy's Taco Salad

1 lb of ground beef

1 packet of Cheesy Taco Seasoning

Shredded Romaine Lettuce

Shredded Medium Cheddar Cheese (Do not buy the prepackaged shredded cheese, buy the block and shred it yourself, it makes a huge difference in taste)

Light Sour Cream

Medium Picante Sauce

Tostitos Whole Grain Scoops

Homemade Guacamole (2 or 3 avocados, fresh lemon juice, sea salt and garlic powder)

Shammy Says "I don't want to toot my own horn but---TOOT!"

The Dark Horse

I have never really cared for spaghetti until a few years ago, when I started making it myself(sorry mom.) Most spaghetti recipes are very runny, and coincidentally make me want to vomit rather than eat. A few years ago, Pooh Bear asked me to make spaghetti and I vehemently declined. It got me thinking that I could make it and possibly tweak it to where I might actually eat it. I did the usual, boiled the noodles, browned the meat and added a jar of sauce, thus creating a runny, yet not so terrible bowl of spaghetti. I suddenly realized what was wrong, it needed to be THICK! The next time I made it I added cream cheese, tossed it in a casserole dish after preparing everything and baked it, voila! Scrumptious! Now I had achieved the perfect spaghetti, or so I had thought. Yes it was perfect, but now it was double the cooking time. I have been wondering for a while now why I couldn't just use my crockpot to make it, so today I logged into Pinterest and searched for "crockpot spaghetti," and my dream came true. Not only is this recipe slightly better than my own, but it was EASIER! This will definitely be a weekly meal at our house from now on. And if you are trying to keep it on the healthy side, then you probably won't want to make it. Let's face it, the cream cheese makes this dish. Don't skip it.


Creamy Crockpot Spaghetti



Shammy Says "I am proud to say that this recipe just bumped Chicken Spaghetti out of it's number one spot"