I promised food...

One of our favorite things to do is to recreate (or try to recreate) our favorite dishes we find in restaurants.
The internet has pretty much all the information you could want on copycat recipes. Some of our tried and tested and extremely successful meals are:
Zuppa Toscana Soup - Olive Garden
Whiskey River boca/garden burger - Red Robin
Pear and Blue Cheese Flatbread Pizza- Cheesecake Factory

We like to play around with substitutes and different flavors, especially with the Pear and Blue Cheese Flatbread. We have found that you actually can't go wrong with changing the cheese or the nuts. Whether you use gorgonzola, blue cheese or feta, it doesn't matter- its ALWAYS delicious. And if you think about how expensive it is to have this appetizer PLUS your entree at Cheesecake Factory (and then, lets be honest, you have to get a cheesecake) this recipe is pretty much spectacular all round. Its probably the closest of the copycat recipes I have tried.

Another thing my husband makes fun of me for is my joy of substitutions when I cook. Some work wonderfully! others... not so much. lets just say no matter what internet site says its ok to sub water for milk DO NOT DO IT! however... substituting yogurt for oil in cakes and breads is fantastic! and much healthier. I never feel good about pouring a huge cup of oil into a recipe, no matter what it is. Something inside me just squeals "NOOOOO!!!" But I made some lovely blueberry bread with yogurt instead of oil this weekend so I am sold.

Lastly, we recently tried our own curry from scratch. We both looooove indian food and when we go home to England it almost makes me cry how easy it is to track down the right ingredients for homemade naan bread and poppadoms. My sister may as well be indian, she makes it all from scratch and its all just incredible.
So we decided we would stop buying the jars and try our own. Will a little help from Jamie Oliver plus some improvisation from myself the curry turned out PERFECT. We made it again 2 days later.

Let me know if anyone would like any of these recipes.