Big Announcement!

I know you've all been super excited all week wondering what our big announcement was going to be! So here it is:

It's Greek Week!!

That's right, all week long we are going to have all new recipes featuring our favorite cuisine! Normally, we only post 2-3 times per week, but we are giving you at least one recipe each day. That way, on our Blog Birthday, Saturday (10/2), you will have all the recipes you need to celebrate with us by having your own Greek feast!

Opa!

Once upon a time there was... a clue...

Hey Castle Farm Cookbook readers, are you excited for our special celebration next week?!?!? Here's a big clue, the recipes will be all about one of our favorite places....

Once upon a time there was... Twice-Baked Potatoes

Last week when we shared our recipe for Scalloped Potatoes, we got a little carried away talking about all the ways to combine potatoes and cheese. The first thing that popped into our heads was Twice-Baked Potatoes. Mooooo. (That's what cows say instead of ooooo. And all the time really.)

This is another recipe that our fancy food processor revolutionized. We used to have to spend a very long time shredded lots of cheese, but now we put it in the top and hit the button and have a giant bowl of perfectly shredded cheese. We probably end up with more cheese in our potatoes this way, since hand shredded tends to lead to lots of eating along the way....

Even with the revolutionary technology of the food processor, this recipe is a nearly 2 hour process. Don't let this scare you! It's easy! But maybe save it for a weekend night.

The Castle Farm recipe does not contain bacon, since Cornelius objects. In fact, the original source at All Recipes includes bacon. So, if you want to add bacon to yours, I won't tell.

Once upon a time there was... Lemon Pasta with Chicken and Pine Nuts

When Cal and I want a quick, weeknight meal, pasta is a good choice. Unfortunately a good recipe is hard to find. Most easy pasta recipes have one of the following problems:

1) they are boring (i.e. spaghetti with sauce from a jar)
2) they are fattening (i.e alfredo, amaretto cream sauce )
3) they require fresh ingredients on hand (i.e penne with fresh pesto, ricotta, and tomatoes)

This recipe is like a magic solution to all of those problems. Just try it. You'll see what we're talking about.

Baltic Cruise

Unlike our other posts this week, this post is not about cheese. It is also not a Blooper. It's not even about food at all! Now you are probably thinking what kind of a food blog is this??? We promise, there is a perfectly good explanation!

We left you all hanging without any new posts for a long time this summer. . . While you were all staring at your computer screens hoping and praying for your favorite food blogging animals to return, we were busy taking vacations. We shared some pictures here and here of our International Tour of America roadtrip, but we did not post pictures of our other summer adventure. So, while we were not sharing delicious recipes with you, here's what we were up to!

toured Copenhagen

standing on either side of the Berlin Wall

Once upon a time there was... Scalloped Potatoes

You might notice a little bit of a theme this week. CHEESE.

We highly recommend putting cheese on as many things as possible. Potatoes, of course, are one of the best pairings for cheese. Twice-baked potatoes, cheese fries, cheesy mashed potatoes... there are so many possibilities when it comes to mixing cheese and potatoes. Today, we will show you how to make just one of them: scalloped potatoes.

Once upon a time there was... Pretzel-Crusted Chicken Breasts with Cheddar-Mustard Sauce

This is one of our all-time favorite recipes. As you may be aware, we really enjoy smothering things in cheese. And it just so happens that this recipe makes a giant pot of cheese that can be used for smothering! Rachael Ray is behind this terrific idea - we've only slightly adapted her recipe.