organizing my most useful kitchen tools
I love healthy food, but I love it more when it doesn’t taste like healthy food. Best of both worlds! Click around to find some of my tried and true staples - and new recipes too, whether my own ideas, inspired by other blogs, torn from the pages of a magazine, or passed through friends or family. Learn more about me and My Utensil Crock HERE.
When people ask me if I could do anything instead of my job, what it would be, one of my stock answers is: "Hang out with friends in a big vacation house and make brunch and sit around and drink coffee all day." The salary on this fantasy is a bit lower than my current gig, so I reserve such activity for special occasions... ...Such … [Read more...]
... and Cilantro, and Roasted Peanuts, and other deliciousness. I subscribe to a few food magazines, but I don't read them when they arrive. I stock them up and go through a big bunch at once, looking for submissions for my "to make" pile. Years before I started my blog - in 2010! - I had a mega-session of poring through stacks of magazines. … [Read more...]
Some days, I just need healthy veggies until I can't chew any more. Today - sandwiched between last week (a busy week at work where I wasn't able to bring lunch), and this coming week (with a trip to Omaha for several days of wedding festivities for a friend) - was one of those days. So I got out my food processor's shredding disc, … [Read more...]
Breakfast Pizza. Let's go there. I was a little too excited to realize this is technically an "in-stock" recipe. I usually have all of the things needed to make this recipe in my apartment. Yessss.... For this particular photographed pizza, I used pizza dough from a little gourmet market, Centrolina Mercato. But fresh homemade pizza dough … [Read more...]
I love looking at Flatbread offerings at restaurants. Far from traditional pizza combinations like pepperoni or spinach, it seems that any three ingredients + a spread = a delicious $14 appetizer. Sometimes the ingredients obviously complement each other - caramelized onions and mushrooms with goat cheese; other combinations, like a recent … [Read more...]
This is a recipe I would have shied away from when I first started cooking. Several techniques, "weird" ingredients, and do I even like "Ropa vieja"? Well, let's smash the why-I-can't list with a meat mallet. Upon further reflection, the "several techniques" were just a few rotations of searing (browning in a pan), and braising (cooking in … [Read more...]
Sometimes it's easier to make bread than to buy it. You may not agree with that statement. But fresh, hot bread out of your oven in about 40 minutes? With NO rise time? If you're not with me on that, I don't know if we can be friends. And you haven't tried Cheesy Beer Bread. I happened upon this recipe out of … [Read more...]
Avocado toast. It's all the rage. You have probably heard of it, and you might be wondering - what is this fancy dish that everyone is talking about? You like avocado, and you like toast. But surely, there must be more to this game? Nah. You pretty much have the hang of it already. You can add some lemon juice to the avocado for a little tang … [Read more...]
I have so much time in the morning before work. I'm always looking for something else to do in those hours before I start my day, and I always have a delicious, hot breakfast. - No one, ever. I may be one for hyperbole, but the quality of my life has literally improved a million-fold since perfecting this recipe and process. With less than a … [Read more...]
It has been raining in Washington, D.C., since April 27. Not constantly, but a lot. Every day. News outlets report that it didn't rain on Thursday or something, but my hair begs to differ. It's been unpleasant, and cloudy, and foggy, and misty for as long as I can remember. After driving rain during the day Friday, we did have a little respite … [Read more...]
