I love being adventurous in the kitchen and when I’m low on food, I have to get creative to feed my family of five.  Sometimes it comes out great and I’ve discovered a new meal to add to my repertoire and other times it’s a horrible disaster. 

On the Today show, they listed the following kitchen staples: lemons, mayo, olive/peanut/sesame oil, butter, rice, pasta, onions, red pepper flakes, garlic, soy sauce, sugar, parmesan cheese and dried herbs.  Of course, this is just a basic list of items that you should have on hand.  If you wanted to make a specific dish, you would need to get those supplies.

For the set of meals prepared during the segment, they needed:  bacon, chicken breast, Udon noodles, bread, shrimp, mushrooms, tomatoes, asparagus, ginger and spinach.  The dishes they made included a delicious looking “bacon, spinach, bread crumb pasta.”  I seriously want to make that tonight!

I really love pizza but heating an oven to bake one (if you don’t want to order take-out) can make the hot summer nights unbearable.  I’ve always wondered if I could just throw my pizza on the grill. 

Chef Mario Batali demonstrated his techniques for making pizza with your backyard grill.  When I was growing up, I loved the taste of pizza baked in a wood burning oven so I’m curious about whether this will come out with that same smoky flavor (I don’t want it too smoky, though!). 

Unfortunately, Mario cheated a little because he used a wood burning oven but he said it was similar to using a grill.  I was a little disappointed but it was still great to see how he worked the dough and created the pie. 

I really love Thai food so my ears immediately perked up when they had a segment called “A Taste of Thailand” on the Today show.  The flavors are so bold and can range from sweet and sticky to spicy and tender. 

I have to admit that the salad that they made looks good but making it seems a little involved.  I don’t own a mortar and pestle so that would have to be my first purchase if I wanted to make this dish authentically.  If the food is good, though, it’s entirely worth the effort.

Watch the segment – poor Al Roker forgot to grab a drink before he tried the spicy dish!

I really like soup but I find it overwhelming to have a bowl of anything hot in the middle of the summer.  On the Today show, chef Curtis Stone created a gazpacho which is otherwise known as a cold soup.  I will admit that I’ve never tried it but I think, after watching this segment, I might give it a chance.

The best part about this dish (get the recipe on the Today site!) is that it looks fairly easy to make.  It’s also fairly healthy since it’s filled with nutritious ingredients like red bell pepper, cucumber and tomatoes.  I haven’t ever had those foods together but now I’m really curious about how it would taste (especially with cumin and coriander in it!).

Watch the segment here (Kathie Lee drinks vinegar!):

If you’re like me, you probably like to have a few days’ notice to prepare for guests.  When people show up unannounced I always feel frazzled.  I like to lounge in my pyjamas when no one is visiting and, while I like to keep a clean house, I usually tidy up a bit (or a lot!) if I’m having people over.  Those things are frustrating but I think that the only thing worse than unexpected guests is figuring out how to feed them! 

On the Today show, they provided some tips for keeping those surprise visitors from starving!  They created the following dishes:

• Classic pesto
• Tomato and mozzarella salad
• Grilled vegetables

The Today show had some helpful tips on what you could do with a simple store-bought jar of pasta sauce.  Host Ann Curry said that most families don’t use the whole jar in one sitting (my family of five certainly does but I usually make it fresh anyway) so she wanted to hear some ideas for what to do with the leftovers.

The first thing they mentioned was making a cocktail sauce.  To make it, combine half a jar of sauce with horseradish, lemon juice and hot sauce to taste.  If you serve it with shrimp, it’s a quick and easy appetizer!

Another idea was to make a salsa by adding cilantro, lemon juice and whatever you like in your salsa (hot sauce, onions, corn, scallions, green pepper). 

Sloppy Joes was another suggestion and they actually looked pretty good to me.  Just add the sauce to some ground beef/chicken/turkey or sausage and put it on a bun.  Easy!

Adding some pasta sauce to sautéed herbs and cream can make an almost instant cream of tomato soup (and it looked creamy and tasty!).  That’s a great idea for lunch the day after pasta night.

The final tip was to thin it out and make a Bloody Mary with Worcestershire sauce, horseradish and lime juice.  Ann Curry seemed to like it.  I’ve never had the real drink but now I’m curious about how this pasta sauce cocktail tastes!

I love burgers but I’ve never thought about having one for breakfast until now.  I guess all of those breakfast sandwiches sold by fast-food restaurants (the ones with sausages, eggs, cheese and yummy biscuits!) could count as a burger of sorts, now that I think about it.

Still, those are sausages but, on the Today show, they actually used ground beef (along with pork, turkey and chicken) as a breakfast food.  For a burger suitable for the morning, they replaced the bun with eggs and pancakes.  I don’t know if I could eat this.  Watch the segment and tell me what you think!

Despite the fact that they usually look really high in calories and fat, I always end up drooling over Paula Deen’s recipes.  They look so delicious and rich (and, of course, bad for you!) but I don’t think there’s anything wrong with the occasional splurge…

On the Today show, she created a lemon-flavored coconut cake (get the recipe!) with homemade icing.  She suggested that people in a hurry can use a lemon cake mix but, if time permits, she recommended getting a yellow cake mix and adding fresh lemon flavoring to it.  YUM.  I can already taste it!  I love lemon cake and I love coconut!  Watch the segment!

I made my first omelet earlier this year (I know, I’m really behind but I just wasn’t courageous enough to try it) and it turned out pretty well.  It helped that I used my husband’s crepe pan and took it really slow, relying on the now-fuzzy instructions I was given all the way back in 8th grade Home Economics (I made my partner do the dirty work).  Eggs make me nervous for about a million reasons.  They could contain salmonella, they break easily, they could be either good or bad for your heart (depending on which reports you believe and whether they contain Omega 3 fatty acids), they burn easily, they can be made in so many ways and, of course, there’s Humpty Dumpty’s tragic accident.  While most people probably aren’t as neurotic as me, I think that a lot of them do shy away from getting “fancy” with eggs. 

Fortunately, the Today show had a segment all about making an “egg-cellent” omelet (we’ll forgive them for that corny description).  Believe it or not, the chef doesn’t use milk!  Watch the segment:

I love pestos.  I love pasta in general but there’s just something about the nutty, basil-infused flavor associated with pesto that I really enjoy.  My mother makes a great one with Italian sausage (which is quite an accomplishment since she doesn’t cook much at all) but she hasn’t revealed her secret recipe.  One day I’ll try to wrangle it out of her. 

In the meantime, chef Lidia Bastianich graciously shared some of her recipes and ideas on the Today show.  She made a traditional pesto with the cheese, basil, pine nuts and basil but she introduced some variations including ingredients like garlic, Romano cheese and walnuts.  It all looked really delicious!