I love to cook; I really do! But planning and preparing dinner every day can become challenging. After you’ve been busy all day, you might just have a small window of time to provide nourishment and hopefully spend a few precious minutes connecting with your loved ones before everyone is off again to practice, do homework, go to meetings, or whatever is on our busy schedules. That’s why coming up with anything that makes getting a meal on the table easier and faster, is always a big plus. In today’s blog I’m sharing 5 of my favorite time-saving cooking hacks to help you save time too!

Roast garlic in the microwave instead of the oven. Just combine garlic, olive oil, and water in a bowl and microwave for 5-7 minutes. You'll end up with all the deliciousness of roasted garlic without the 45-minute cooking time.

Soften butter quickly by placing it under a warm glass. Warm up a glass by filling it with hot water, dump the water out, then place it over a chunk of cold butter. After a minute or two, the butter will be soft enough to spread.

Microwave potatoes before frying, roasting, or baking them to cut down the cooking time and make sure they're completely cooked throughout. Microwave them for four minutes before cooking to cut cooking time and make sure they come out nice and tender.

Make time-saving cubes in advance. Those silicon ice cube trays aren’t just for ice. By freezing a few easy ingredients, you can save yourself tons of time later. Put some of your favorite herbs and olive oil in tray compartments to cook potatoes, vegetables, or chicken on another day. Pour extra wine into the tray so you can use it for flavoring sauces. Pour in the last few drops from the coffeepot to make cubes that won’t water down your cold brew! It might not seem like much, but when these run out, you’ll wish you’d made more.

Use a pressure cooker. With the popularity of electric pressure cookers, there’s a million delicious recipes out there, but when you use one, you can save hours of cooking time. It’s even faster when you prep your ingredients beforehand, so cut soup vegetables or defrost meats, and you’ll be able to start the meal in a flash! Try our recipe for Saigon Pork Shoulder. https://bit.ly/2L6epf0

There are certainly some dishes that are worth putting a lot of time into when you have the time to do it. Unfortunately, today’s busy world doesn’t always allow us that luxury, so I try to find ways to be more efficient while still producing nutritious and delicious meals for my family. If you’ve discovered any great cooking or kitchen time savers, we’d love to hear about them in the comments.

Easter is over, but if you hosted a big Easter feast, chances are you still have leftovers that you need to use or lose. (If you’re anything like me, wasting or throwing away food is a worst-case scenario.) Yesterday’s tip was for a great way to use those hard-boiled eggs you dyed. Today let’s get creative with that leftover Easter ham.

Some tried and true leftover ham uses are obvious and have even become tradition. After the initial serving at brunch or dinner, any good sliceable meat is used for delicious sandwiches, right? However, even after cutting all of that off the bone, we’re often left with lots of good useable ham; it’s just not able to be sliced. Instead it can only be cut off the bone in chunks, but these are easily converted to smaller cubes or strips depending on where your culinary creativity leads.

Diced ham is quite versatile, of course. A handful thrown in to almost any salad is a tasty way to add protein. As a matter of fact, one of my favorite recipes to add diced ham to is our Saigon Slaw!

( https://bit.ly/2XlE2cO ) I simply substitute ham for the bacon. Yum!

Casseroles and skillet meals come to mind when imagining ways to use leftover ham because it goes so well with ingredients like vegetables, cheese, rice, potatoes, pasta, etc. I love to use ham in my favorite Pasta Carbonara. The extra saltiness of the ham is a bright contrast to the mild sauce.

If you just can’t eat any more ham this week, freeze it for use over the next few months. Cube it first; that way it’ll be super simple to add to any dish you like – chicken cordon bleu, jambalaya, Hawaiian pizza, strata, frittata, omelets, scones, quesadillas, soups, pot pies – you get the idea. It goes well with almost anything.

Finally, don’t throw away the bone! If you don’t want to use it now, wrap that baby up and throw it in the freezer for when you want to make beans, lentils, or split-pea soup. The flavor a ham bone adds to these types of dishes is incomparable.

We’d love to hear about any of the creative ways you use your Easter meal leftovers! Let us know in the comments.

As trees begin to blossom with the start of spring, the thoughts of many around the globe turn to Easter. Easter is a time for those who celebrate it to be with family, friends, and loved ones. As with most holidays, much of that time is centered around traditional foods. Easter, Passover, and the welcoming of Spring have had special foods associated with them since ancient times, and it’s no surprise that eggs are often an integral part of this holiday’s dishes.

In many cultures around the world, the egg is a symbol of new life, fertility, and rebirth. Some claim that the Easter egg has pagan roots. Before Christians celebrated the resurrection of Jesus, some argue ancient pagans in Europe observed the Spring Equinox as the return of the sun God — a rebirth of light and an emergence from the lean winter.

From a Christian perspective, Easter eggs are said to represent Jesus’ emergence from the tomb and resurrection. Decorating eggs for Easter is a tradition that dates to at least the 13th century, according to some sources. One explanation for this custom is that eggs used to be a forbidden food during the Lenten season, so people would paint and decorate them to mark the end of the period of penance and fasting; then they would eat them on Easter as a celebration.

Beyond colorful hard-boiled eggs, there are many delicacies that factor into the traditional Easter meals enjoyed around the world. The foods vary by country and region and include sweet breads and pastries, meat and egg dishes, and plenty of cakes and cookies.

In Poland, for example, the Easter brunch buffet table is plentiful, showcasing some of the country's best dishes. One of the staples you will find is faszerowany jajka, which are stuffed eggs that are similar to deviled eggs, except they're broiled with a breadcrumb topping. They have a delicious filling of ham, cheese, sour cream, and mustard.

Eggs and lamb are two important and symbolic foods at Easter for Italians, and they join—along with asparagus—in a frittata-like dish called brodetto pasquale. It makes perfect use of the early spring vegetable and eggs.

At Easter, on every Greek household table, you will find lamb, red eggs, and tsoureki, an orange and spice-scented bread. The dough is braided and then died red eggs are nestled on top before baking, making for a festive and unique looking bread.

Torta pascualina (Easter Pie) is a savory pie made with spinach, ricotta, and whole eggs that cook as the pie is baked. This traditional Easter dish is a favorite of both Argentine and Uruguayan families.

Here in the U.S., many families dye hard-boiled eggs which look so festive leading up to the holiday, and they often find their way to the Easter table (and packed lunches for a week!) in the form of deviled eggs and egg salad. We also eat a lot of our Easter eggs for dessert! Lots of egg-themed surprises fill our traditional Easter baskets. Okay, so they’re chocolates, jelly beans, and other candy in the shape of eggs, but it’s a celebration, so I say we can make an “eggsception” this one day of the year. 😉 Easter time is the time for eggs!

It’s Spring, and it’s the season for one of my favorite vegetables -- asparagus! Although it is available year-round, spring is the best season for this nutritious vegetable. Crops are harvested from late February to June, with April being the prime month and high season for asparagus.

Whether it’s from the grocery store or a local farmer’s market, I am always looking for the best deal on fresh fruits and vegetables. We all live for convenience especially when it comes to food and our health, but just like the myth that healthy eating is expensive, many people believe that buying in-season fruits and vegetables is just too much hassle even though the good reasons to do so abound!

Food always tastes better when it’s fresh, but purchasing seasonal veggies gets you more than just great taste. It’s also a great time to save some cash. When certain foods are in season, the relative abundance of these crops usually makes it less expensive.

Fresh asparagus will be bright green with no signs of shriveling. The tender tips may have a purplish cast, but they should be firm and tight, never mushy. The cut end will be thick and fibrous—the plant’s reaction to the injury of cutting. This end is broken off before cooking, but if the shoots are fresh, you may lose only an inch.

Asparagus is a nutritional giant containing more folic acid than any other vegetable. It is also a source of fiber, potassium, vitamins A and C and glutathione, a phytochemical with antioxidant and anticarcinogenic properties.

I like to cook asparagus the day I buy it, but you can place asparagus in a produce bag in your vegetable drawer; however, it’s more likely to get bruised, broken, or left too long. To keep asparagus in prime condition, trim the cut ends, stand them in a glass of water, cover with plastic, and refrigerate (glass and all) for up to two days.

One of the beauties of these elegant spears is their versatility. Roasted, steamed, boiled, grilled, even raw – asparagus can be prepared and eaten in a multitude of ways. First, thoroughly wash the asparagus. You don't want to soak it; just hold the stalks upside down under cold water and shake them a bit to release any sand that might be caught in the tips. Then hold both ends of each spear and bend; the tough, fibrous base should snap right off. (This step is unnecessary in thinner spears, which are completely edible.) Then, pick one of many easy ways to prepare this delicate spring treat.

A little olive oil and salt are all that are needed to season asparagus, but it is often served with a sauce. The classic sauce to serve with asparagus is hollandaise sauce which has a rich creamy texture and a lovely tang to it that complements the flavor of the asparagus, but any number of sauces and flavors could accompany it. Asparagus is also perfect as a vegetable in pasta dishes, soups, and salads. Check out our recipe for Chilled Orzo & Asparagus Salad here: https://bit.ly/2FZ4vaw if you’re looking for a new way to prepare this Spring superstar!

The list of foods that are considered breakfast foods is long and delicious: eggs, bacon, sausage, toast, shredded or cubed potatoes, grits, cold cereals, hot cereals, biscuits...all tasty on their own but often prepared in many ways. A line in the best-selling book and critically acclaimed movie “The Help” written by Kathryn Stockett always stuck with me and certainly describes many breakfast foods perfectly. It’s when one of the main characters tells a child, “That's all a grit is, a vehicle. For whatever it is you rather be eating.” To me, this is the perfect way to think of many so-called breakfast foods because maybe one of the best things about these foods is their versatility. 

While grits, eggs, and potatoes are perfectly fine with a little butter, salt, and pepper, they are spectacular as a “vehicle” for other flavors and textures. As a matter of fact, as I was eating breakfast out the other day, thinking about how good our Bellisari’s Blue Cheese, Honey, and Shallot Spread would be on hash browns, I decided to write this week’s blog about breakfast foods. Pairing crispy potatoes with cheese is a no-brainer, but when you add in the subtle sweetness of this spread, it's a match made in culinary heaven. I’m imagining a reinvention of the classic cheesy potato brunch casserole with our spread to give it that yummy sweet and tangy flavor.  

Toast might be the ultimate blank pallet. For example, something as simple as avocado toast has become a “thing.” Imagine your avocado toast elevated by adding a smear of just about any of our sauces or spreads. You’d have a healthy, easy breakfast that tastes like you just ate at a 5-star restaurant. 

Visit https://bellisaris.com/pages/breakfast-recipes to see some of the ways we’ve already combined some of our favorite breakfast foods with our Bellisari’s sauces and spreads. Since many of the breakfast foods on their own are very mild in flavor, it’s easy to add a gourmet boost in any number of combinations. We’d love to hear about any clever and delicious ways you’ve incorporated Bellisari’s into your breakfast menu!