Ward Street Bistro

Spinach Ricotta Pie

One of the many great things about Seattle is that there are almost no bugs in the summer, making Seattle an ideal locale for picnics. You may think of Seattle as rainy and cloudy but the reality is that we have many beautiful, sunny, not-too-hot summer days.

A picnic favorite that we enjoyed recently is this spinach and ricotta pie. It's easy to fix and travels beautifully. Somehow, a savory pie or quiche makes any picnic seem more festive.

You can go directly to the printable recipe or I'll show you how to make this, step-by-step...

Behind the Apron

Mostly, my goal is to keep this blog 100% focused on recipes and cooking. But, after reading about Behind the Apron, I decided to participate. So, here it goes...

Here Drake and I are enjoying Hawaii - a trip we took with his folks, his brother, and his two kids (who were then 11 and 14 years old). Believe it or not, I was somewhat lukewarm on a trip to Hawaii. I'd never taken a "fun-in-the-sun" vacation, thinking it might be, well, kind of boring. Ha. That attitude lasted about 10 minutes. We had a fabulous time and I can't wait to go back.

Some more randomness, since I've been tagged by Sookie's Kitchen to write 6 random things about myself...

Mushroom and Tomato Risotto

I am very pleased to be doing a second guest post over at one of my favorite cooking sites, startcooking.com. This time I'm featuring a quick & easy risotto - no stirring required - that makes a great weeknight dinner. The key is cooking a flavorful plain risotto on its own and  mixing it into a skillet that contains a desired combination of vegetables, herbs, seafood, sausage...whatever strikes your fancy. I'm demonstrating the recipe with one of my favorite combinations - tomatoes and mushrooms - both of which have had their flavors concentrated before being mixed into the rice.  I hope you'll stop by startcooking.com to check my latest post and of course the wealth of other recipes and information Kathy Maister provides.

P.S. If you're curious on how Kathy does her amazing how-to videos, there is a complete explanation here.