This past Saturday, I made it out to the Little Italy Mercato here in San Diego. I scored big time with cipollini onions, heirloom tomatoes, swiss chard, fresh french baguette, goat’s milk feta… and the list goes on!

I’ve never tried cipollini onions before, but I’ve been dying to since I read how tasty they were after roasting them. But what recipe should I try?? Hm. This was tough, but when I came across Smitten Kitchen’s Roasted Tomatoes and Cipollinis I was hooked!

Wow! Really. WOW! I would like to eat this every night. I didn’t add white beans to mine, nor did I used the chopped basil. (It was in fact chopped and sitting on my cutting board, oops.) It was still so tasty!

Can’t wait to make this again… with the basil.

To accompany my roasted delights, I made my first batch of swiss chard. I used the Lemony Swiss Chard recipe from Martha. This was also quite good, and a lovely addition of color to the plate. It was different than I’d expected, but in a good way.

I could have photographed this swiss chard all day. It’s so lovely. So vibrant. So fresh. Straight from the farm.

If you haven’t found a local Farmers’ Market in your area yet, then get out and find one! It’s totally worth it.

I adore avocados! Don’t you? So creamy and fresh. I love them sliced with a dash of lime or lemon juice and a little salt & pepper. Simply delicious!

I also love them on a crostini. Here I’ve topped my crostinis with a little sour cream, homemade salsa verde, diced avocado and cilantro with a squeeze of lime juice. The flavors are so lovely together. The creaminess of the avocado and sour cream with the crunchy toasted baguette slice… heaven!

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Have a great spring weekend! I’ll be up to even more spring cleaning… so far, I’ve deep cleaned and organized the kitchen, rearranged and updated our bedroom and home office, and made two trips to drop off donations, maybe one more in our weekend outlook. Feels good to purge!

Recently, I tried making my own pizza dough from Martha Stewart’s Baking Handbook. It turned out so nicely that I have made it several times since! It’s so rewarding making things like this from scratch. I simply make a batch and freeze half to use at another time. It’s worth the little effort to have something fresh and tasty. Here is a similar recipe to the one in the book. Frozen Pizza Dough.

For this Margherita Pizza, I use one container of Domino’s Marinara sauce (we had one leftover), fresh mozzarella slices and fresh basil leaves. First, I roll the dough out. I like mine on the thinner side. Sprinkle cornmeal on your cookie sheet. Place rolled dough onto sheet. Brush with olive oil, top with marinara, mozzarella slices, basil leaves and salt & pepper. I also grated a little asiago (or any hard cheese) I had in my drawer, just to add a little more flavor. Bake in a 450 degree oven for 12-15 minutes. Throw a few more basil leaves on top and enjoy!

If you don’t want to make your own dough, buy some to use. You could also make your own pizza sauce. I just haven’t gotten around to perfecting that. Might be next on my list of things to learn.

This is such a tasty dinner. It has become a staple in our home. Try it! There are so many combinations of flavors out there. I favor simplicity, but these would be super tasty with meats if that’s your thing.

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We’re enduring a record-breaking snowstorm here in the Baltimore-D.C. area. Will post updates of the snow! It’s just lovely.
Have a warm and happy weekend!