Being sick really sucks my friends. Unfortunately, I’ve been continually coughing for my fourth straight week and it has seriously cut into my willingness to cook and work on original recipes. Pair that with the holiday weekend and you have a near week with no recipes. This is certainly not the way I wanted to kick this thing off.

At any rate, I’m starting to feel a bit better and am working on a bunch of recipes to cook throughout September as it gets cooler here in the Mitten state (yes, …

Antipasto means “before the meal” and is the traditional first course of a formal Italian meal. Fortunately and unfortunately, I often can make Antipasto a full meal if I’m going for something lite on the palate.

Traditional antipasto includes cured meats, marinated vegetables, olives, pepperoni (marinated small peppers, not to be confused with the sausage, pepperoni), and various cheeses, such as provolone or fresh mozzarella. I always toss a little extra virgin olive oil over mine and have gotten in the habit of really indulging in it over the cured meats.
I’ll …