A Handful of Tempting Recipes

It's Friday. Sunny, but cold. The bird baths are full of ice. The week is winding down to a chilly conclusion. My husband just walked through the door with some flowers [scoring serious points] so I thought I'd brew myself a mug of green tea, and take a little time out to browse my favorite food blogs and share some mighty tempting recipes that caught my eye recently. No theme. No agenda. I just wanted to have a little fun.

First stop is Simply Recipes. Elise posted a wonderful bit on Roasted Garlic this week, with photographs so appetizing you can almost smell the rustic delicious scent of all those papery-clad heads baking themselves into sweet oblivion. There's just nothing like roasted garlic. I'm a huge fan. [note to self: this weekend - buy several heads of fresh garlic for roasting] And speaking of roasting, When the Chicken Comes Home to Roast over at Weekly Dish looks like the quintessential choice for a winter weekend menu. I loved Culinary Bookworm's story about the aunts, and most of all, her husband's cooking instructions.

And what to do with leftover chicken? Make the tasty Chicken Salad with Basil and Parmesan I just discovered at Kalyn's Kitchen, a naturally gluten-free recipe. I must be on a pesto kick this week because fresh basil is so hard to come by [which only enhances my craving for it, but let's not get Freudian now, shall we?]. My husband found some basil recently (that obviously endured air travel), and made Ilsa's tantalizing recipe for Lasagna con Pomodorini, Mozzarella e Pesto (at Lucullian Delights) a distinct possibility, if I use gluten-free noodles.

The photograph of Susan's Mexican Pumpkin Soup over at Fatfree Vegan Kitchen had my taste buds at Hello. [This Southwestern inspired recipe is on my Must Make Soon short list.] And I also liked Sweetnicks' take on a Cooking Light dish - Pasta with Smoked Salmon; also doable using brown rice pasta [thank goddess for Tinkyada].

For cravings [and goddess knows, we all get them], there's no better stop on this mini blog tour than The Domestic Goddess - and her No Bake Cheesecake looks totally doable gluten-free, if you use a gluten-free cookie like Pamela's for the chocolate crust. And Brendon at Something in Season has a Dark Chocolate- Dipped Ginger Cake that's gluten-free [ginger + chocolate - how bad could that be?].

And last but never least, my biggest smile came from Maddie the Snow Bunny at Rubber Slippers in Italy. I have fallen in love with Westies this year [our neighbor has a new Westie puppy named Whiskey that I have a total, huge crush on] and Rowena's photo just says it all. Well darlings. Tea is cold. That's it for now. Off to make sure we have corn tortillas for supper. It's Taco Night at Casa Allrich!