Let me set the scene for you. I’m standing in my kitchen, holding a recipe from Food to Film that promises Mexican Chicken Tostadas. I’m not entirely sure what I’ve done to deserve this, but as it turns out, I am about to make the best shredded chicken of my life. Despite my lack of competence, despite my questionable use of measuring spoons, and despite the fact that I used store-bought tortillas and coleslaw because I am both lazy and under no illusions about my culinary abilities. So if you, like me, are someone who can’t be trusted to boil water without supervision,
Category: Recipes from Blogs
Beet Box: Turning Purple Never Felt So Violent
Okay, first things first: beets. If you’re anything like me, you’ve probably spent a significant portion of your life avoiding them. I mean, they look like tiny heart transplants waiting to happen, and they taste like… the Earth. Not “earthy,” not “fresh,” just straight-up dirt. If you told me they were dug up yesterday by some farmer named Hank, I would believe you. So when I came across *The Kitchn’s* *beet box* recipe, my initial reaction was a healthy dose of skepticism and fear. But, seeing as I am a mature adult who tries new things (this is not entirely
Chicken Marbella
You know those recipes where you look at it and think, “That can’t possibly work?” Hello, Chicken Marbella from the blog Seasonal Cravings. It’s chicken marinated in a sauce made of… Wait for it…. Prunes, olives, balsamic vinegar, capers, and olive oil. Did you SEE that it says PRUNES?! It sounds so wrong, yes? Color me corrected on this one guys. It’s delicious. It’s this wonderful fruity sauce with complex Mediterranean undertones that plays along the tongue and kinda makes you wish you made more. The crazy thing? I know that the prunes were pivotal in making this so damn yummy.
Chouquettes (Sugar Puffs)
I think we all, at some point in the middle of being locked in at home, will run out of frozen dinner and start to actually cook. Or in my case, BAKE. I love to bake. The end result is most likely yummy and full of sugar, two elements that I love to have incorporated into my food. You can see why chouquettes sounded good. They’re sugar puffs. That must mean yummy. Sugar + yummy makes me happy. My chouquettes turned out… a little deflated. Let’s just say that they did NOT look like what I saw on Chocolate and
Pressure Cooker Lentils
This was unexpectedly well liked. Even my fiancé thought he’d give the Mr. Yuck face to this… but he didn’t. To be honest, I only made this because I have this rad pressure cooker from Breville and I try to find reasons to use it. Regardless of recipe, whether it sounds good or bad, if it requires a pressure cooker, I gleefully save it so I can whip out that bad boy and press “Power”. So when these pressure cooker lentils appeared on my browser, I thought, “YES!” My fiancé wished I would just make your everyday Mexican beans and
Creamy Crab Croquettes
Many times I choose a recipe simply because I think it’ll be a challenge. You could think of it almost as an invitation to fail, because failure means I learned something. Spoiler alert: I did not fail. This recipe was oh-so-delicous. So delicious that my significant other became homesick. It reminded him too much of food served at Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco. It was the best compliment he could’ve given me. The recipe of course is for Creamy Crab Croquettes stolen from Beyond the Plate. We couldn’t decide which way was better–fresh out of the fryer or straight out
Creamy Pork Stew
I am not a big fan of pork. By that I mean pork chops, because YOU KNOW I love ham and am having a not-so-secret affair with bacon. But pork chops? Hard. Pass. BUT, since I’m always in the pursuit of new recipes, and diving into foods that I would normally say “No, thank you” too, I decided to give this Creamy Pork Stew a try aaaaaaaand…. I think I just found *THE* winter soup recipe of the year. Really. And it’s strange because one of my favorite parts of this was the pork. It was all juicy and tender
Cauliflower Steak with Chèvre Cream
I need to stop looking up recipes that are supposed to be healthier, because I’m finding that they are just not that fun for me. But, when I kept seeing “cauliflower steaks” like they were supposed to replace real steak, I thought, I’ve got to see what this nonsense is about. And it IS nonsense for the record. Cauliflower will never be steak in any way shape or form. That being said… The strange part about this recipe is… I actually enjoyed the baked cauliflower! I ate it and thought, “Okay, I sorta-kinda get why people substitute this for beef.”
Maple Oatmeal Scones
I’ve had quite a scornful relationship with scones. In my childhood, my family would always by them at the State Fair, cost a small fortune, and usually consisted of generic jam stuffed into big hunk of dry bread like substance. Everybody praised them as being awesome while I would mistakenly give them a try (again) and finding myself hacking up crumbs that got stuck in my throat. Yuck. But then I got to thinking. I like tea. Scones are supposed to go great with tea. Maybe I was eating the wrong scones at the wrong time. Maaaaybe, if I added
The Pumpkin Chocolate Tart by Any Other Name Would Be…
The Fuck Yeah Tart, or so the writer of Wholy Goodness believes. Sorry for the coarse language, but it IS what she called this vegan and refined sugarless masterpiece. Except, I didn’t make mine vegan. When it said to add coconut milk, all I could think was “HEAVY CREAM!” while grocery shopping and OOPS, I bought the heavy cream instead of the coconut milk. It was no accident and I’m SorryNotSorry. I’ll be honest, I gravitated towards this recipe because the man in my life is bemoaning the amount of sugar loaded treats I’ve been baking. So this is how