Hey There!

So we're done with the excuses and the "forgive our lateness" because the truth of the matter is life gets hectic. We aren't at a point in our lives where we can afford fancy ingredients each month, we can't always be in town at the same time, and sometimes we just need a break (not from each other psh we're best friends).  

That being said, the girls here at SF have gotten together since our last post. We are still friends and we still have a passion for cooking but sometimes life just steps in and priorities take over.

Why are we telling you all this? Well in a mean twist of ironicness we are having a February Second Friday! Last years was such a blast that we knew we HAD to have another.

We'll actually Second Saturday due to some schedule conflicts but Friday will be our craft day and Saturday will be our awesome all day Valentine/Sport Day extravaganza! 

Plus Kelsey had a most fantastic food creation idea. But you'll have to check back to see about that. We promise it'll be delicious!

Second Friday goes Italian!

We're back!

Have you missed us? We sure missed you and cooking! Well mostly cooking.... just kidding.

Ahem, so Second Friday was awesome to the max.  And of course it wouldn't be SF if the following happened:

1. We didn't take a whole lot of pictures

2. Some pictures are blurry

3. Missed out on some great photo ops

Get what we're getting at? The photo taking still needs some work but meh we'll get there.

 Ah the life of a lemon. So yellow. So mellow. So in need of a fellow. We didn't actually use lemons at all. Alixx just brought some over for Kelsey. 
That's what best friends do. 

 Back to cooking. 
So for appetizers we made toasted ravioli and caprese. But one at a time.  Beat up those eggs.
Kelsey is just way too fast for Alixx to capture in the picture. Hold still Kelsey!

 Then mix bread crumbs with parmesan and give it a good mix. 

 KELSEY!  

Basically dip a frozen ravioli in the egg, then in the bread crumb.

 Line em up and stick them in the oven.

 Once we had that all ready, we got the caprese salad going.  First things first, we got some balsamic boiling in a pan. You want that to reduce just a little to get it a little thick. 

 While that's going we cut up the tomatoes, since Kelsey's sisters were in town (a lovely surprise since it made Italian SF seem that much more authentic!) we cut the tomatoes up small enough to make them bite size appetizers. Same with the mozarella and basil.

 Awww yea! 

And those ravioli you ask? Simply divine. 

 Next the main course! We made chicken sausage with pasta. The recipe was provided by Kelsey's sister, Cass.  It was heavenly, it was magical, it was everything Italian food should be.

That did have to sit for a while but it let us get the side dish ready.
The side dish being antipasti salad, recipe again provided by Cass! 

 So throw some halved cherry tomatoes and mozrella pieces into a bowl and toss with some olive oil. 
Refrain from eating.

 Next mix some pesto and red wine vinegar.  See that basil in the background? That's from Alixx's garden. Please we beg you, plant some basil. Harvest that basil. Eat that basil. You'll thank us.

 Keep an eye on that sausage, make sure to stir every so often.  Alixx tried to catch Kelsey's lettuce chopping in action. So close.

 Kelsey found this fancy little pack of meat especially for antipasti salad! It worked perfectly. We used the whole package. That's the only way to do this.

Throw all that in and mix it up. You could try to refrain from eating, but it won't work. We promise.

Everyone dug in and loved the food (naturally) it was awesome sharing that Italian food with a big 'ol group of people!  Serve the meat sauce over some pasta and seriously try not to eat the whole pan.  The original anitpasti salad recipe says to make it more as a layered salad, but a chopped salad is so much easier! Especially for a big Italian family dinner.  

We're sorry we deserted you but we're back! Check back for updates!

We know what you're thinking...

We know, it's been a while but good things come to those who wait.

You've probably been wondering just where have we been?
And who are we? That's a secret we'll never tell, you know you love us. XOXO Gossip Gi-....

Wait, we took that one too far, you know who we are, and if our own blogs haven't explained our absence let us now do that.

Plain and simple?
Life is full of stuff.

Elaborate?
Man oh man has this year just gotten hectic!
Kelsey is busy with starting school at ASU! Plus if that wasn't enough she is still basically working full time.  She is kicking butt at college and most of her time is dispersed between working, school or studying. 

Alixx has been busy applying to med school and holding down a full time job.  Every second of her day seems to be already allocated to writing essays, researching colleges, and getting use to a buisiness casual wardrobe.

So please, be gentle with us. We'll finish posting our panini recipes. We'll update the fact that we celebrated Second Friday's first birthday. And we'll start posting some more delicious recipes. 

Just please, be patient with us.

You know you love us, 
XOXO SF Girls

Summer Veggies!

So keeping true to our theme of panini night, our side dish was grilled veggies! We absolutely LOVE grilled veggies so it seemed like the perfect thing to make! Plus we had a brilliant idea to make our own sauce to go over the grilled veggies. It was delicious! Let's dive in!

So first things first the sauce we made was a balsamic citrus vinaigrette.
Cast of characters: balsamic vinegar, honey, pepper, salt, nutmeg, orange zest and orange juice.

Put the balsamic in a bowl and add the honey. 

Next add the nutmeg, salt and pepper.

Then grab your orange and zest that baby up!

Juice the orange, don't worry about man-handling the orange, it truly is the best way to juice. 
We promise.
Once that's in there give a good stir and taste it. You can tweak the recipe if you want it a little sweeter but we were big fans!

Make sure you take a sushi break. 

Next for the grilling.

Veggies present and ready to be cut up.

That's what we're talking about! So colorful! So summery! So... so... lovely!

Nothing too fancy followed, we sprayed the panini with some butter spray to keep anything from sticking, and then added the veggies. 

Time will really depend on how soft or crunchy you want your veggies to be.

Is there anything better than grilled peppers? (The answer is: no.)

OOH!!

All done and the sauce allowed the veggies to not be drenched but just the perfect ratio of veggie to sauce.


Make this the next time you have a BBQ, it will be a huge hit! If not let us know. And we'll tell you your friends have questionable taste.
Just kidding... kind of.

June Second Friday

Our first summer Second Friday is quickly approaching and we've got such great ideas in store! The theme for this month is...


Panini Night!  


That's right, Kelsey and Alixx have been long time fans of panini grills and ever since Kelsey got her new one for graduation, the love of panini has increased exponentially! So we decided to go ahead and make everything on the panini, from the main meal, to the side dish, to the dessert! 


We'll be making some of our own recipes so be sure to check back! 

May Second Friday!

What a special one it will be! 


Friday morning, Alixx will be graduating with her Masters! 


Obviously Kelsey will be there to cheer her on and celebrate! Isn't it wonderful that this awesome, special occasion fell on Second Friday? It's fate. 


Second Friday will still be spent eating good food, Alixx just hasn't decided where she wants to go for lunch.  


We'll keep you updated on our Second Friday Graduation fun! 

Bacon-Wrapped Pizza Rolls

Not a whole lot makes sense in this crazy crazy world. But there is one thing you can count on, Bacon-wrapped pizza rolls. Hallelujah. 

Cast of characters: pizza rolls, and bacon. This is seriously the easiest, most delicious thing you will ever eat. EVER.

Line a baking sheet with foil.

Make sure your bacon is completely defrosted, but the pizza rolls themselves are frozen. Then just do what comes natural. Wrap them pizza rolls in bacon!

The first one. Aww!

Now we're really cooking. As you can seen we extreme rolled these bad boys up with an entire strip of bacon per roll. Hindsight not too great an idea. The bacon and pizza roll cooks much better when you only use about 1/3 of the strip per roll. Can't blame us for trying though.  
Math Time. 
So if 1 package of bacon brings an average of 12 strips. And each strip can wrap three pizza rolls. How many pizza rolls can you wrap in bacon?
Answer: 36 pizza rolls

All cooked and delicious! Warning: The smell wafting from your oven will cause extreme drooling.

Bacon-Wrapped Pizza Rolls

• 1 package of bacon (brings an average of 12 strips)
• Pizza Rolls

1. Defrost bacon a few hours before you are ready to cook.
2. Preheat oven to 425.
3. Line a baking sheet with foil.
4. Take pizza rolls out of the freezer and place on baking sheet.
5. Cut bacon into thirds and wrap around the pizza roll. (You can double or triple wrap the bacon but this causes some weird cooking issues.) 
6. Place bacon-wrapped pizza rolls in the oven for 10 minutes or until bacon looks cooked and smells like heaven.
7. Once done allow to cool then enjoy!

Makes 36 pizza rolls.