Decorating Mama T’s famous Holiday sugar cookies has been a tradition in my family before I could even say the word “butter”. Every year, my Mom whips out about four dozen of these bad boys and we go to town on making the most interesting frosting colors to decorate our cookies with. The highlight of this year was our Millennial Pink frosting, which I believe was aptly named. …
Tips + Tricks
Why You Should Spatchcock Your Thanksgiving Turkey
The first time I saw a spatchcocked turkey, I thought the cook had brutalized the poor thing. It definitely looked nothing like the roasted turkey that I was used to seeing in every food photo pretty much ever. So I politely asked, “uh… what’s with the bird?” It was then that I learned about the wonders of the spatchcocked turkey from the cook’s point of view: It may not be pretty, but damn it makes hosting Thanksgiving dinner a whole lot easier….
Homemade Pumpkin Purée
I’m going to be straight with you. I may or may not have googled where the accent mark in “pumpkin purée” goes before posting this recipe. I mean come on, two e’s? How many does the word really need??
Purée rant aside, let’s get back to the real topic here: pumpkin pie!…
Summer Fig + Honey Tea Cake
If you happened to peruse my last post about my new fig obsession {Fig, Caramelized Onion + Goat Cheese Tart}, you’ll already be in the know about my stealthy acquisition of some of my neighbors’ figs. Now that I have access to so many of them, you could say I’ve become a bit fig crazed. For many, the fig is an acquired taste. They’re only ripe for a short amount of time, usually insanely overpriced, not easy to find, and frankly a bit weird. If you are lucky enough to have access to a fig tree, you don’t have to worry about most of these drawbacks. Hence, my fig insanity.
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Quail Egg Shakshuka with Zoodles
I’ve been on quite the vegetable kick lately. Before now, I never realized how easy it was to just throw together a meaty main dish for dinner and call it a day. Now I’ve really had to get creative so that salad is not the only thing on the menu. One of the most hearty vegetarian dishes on my rotation is shakshuka. It has an earthy yet spicy kick thanks to some key ingredients, and it spoons just so perfectly onto a steaming loaf of Homemade Bread….
Mastering the French Macaron
I finally had a free day to myself this Sunday with zero commitments, so my friend and I decided to try our hands at the French macaron. The macaron is probably one of the most intimidating baking challenges out there. If you mess up a ratio, forget to pop a few bubbles, or simply open the oven too soon, all can be lost. That said, we were determined to tease out the tricks of the pesky macaron. We made a number of different batches and tried a few different techniques to get the very best version – which, I won’t lie, took a good amount of time. After a few mishaps and broken macaron cookies (poor babies), we finally started to get the hang of it!…
Pulled “Pork” Jackfruit Sandwiches
In this edition of my favorite weekly ritual, Pantry Meal of the Week, I dug pretty deep into the depths of my fridge and pantry. I had some leftover cabbage and radish slices from the Classic Pozole Rojo we devoured the other night, so I immediately thought of coleslaw. Because that’s a totally normal train of thought. I found a few remaining cans of jackfruit in the pantry from back when I was stocking up to make BBQ “Chicken” Jackfruit Pizza the other week, and decided to take them out for a swing.
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Mama T’s Cincinnati Chili
During the winter months when I was growing up, my mom would start to make her delicious braises and stews for the four of us for dinner. One of my all time favorite recipes is her Cincinnati chili. She would start reducing the meaty sauce before we got home from school, so by the time we opened the door we would be washed in the amazing smell of spices emanating from the kitchen. …
Homemade Mozzarella Cheese
As you may know, cheese is my favorite food group. Yes, I said food group. In my book it deserves its own group separate from dairy in which it can shine to all of its cheesy goodness potential. …
Homemade Chickpea Pasta [GF]
In my never-ending hunt for carbohydrates, I came upon the idea of using atypical flours to make my favorite homemade pasta dishes. I had no idea where to find garbanzo flour at my local supermarket, so I wandered onto the interwebs over to Amazon to search for it there. It turns out it wasn’t really that hard to find after all! Also it qualified for Prime shipping, so I was quite the happy camper. Two days later my garbanzo flour was patiently waiting at my door when I got home from work, ready to be made into some delicious, albeit somewhat difficult pasta.
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