November 19, 2014

Roasted Potato Breakfast Nachos

I know we’re supposed to be in Thanksgiving Brainstorm Mode right now but let’s talk about the days after when you have company over at your house and you want to feed them something delicious for breakfast. Besides dipping into your leftover stash, you should make them this showstopper Roasted Potato Breakfast Nacho recipe from Joy the Baker’s Homemade Decadence Cookbook. If you haven’t bought yourself that book WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR??! Seriously. I can imagine it would also be good for one of those Sunday football situations as well. My maj knows what’s up when it comes to potatoes and cheese. I’ll bring the runny egg yolk to the situation because that’s how I roll. Teamwork!

As I type out this recipe, I see that it serves 4-6 people. In my house it served two. That happens whenever meat & potatoes are involved. My husband is in heaven whenever the two things are combined and he eats as if his life depends on it. It secretly makes me happy. As you can imagine it’s hard to lose weight in my household when you have a food pushing wife.

Exhibit A:

Can you really blame him? There’s Italian sausage up in that pile of potatoes. And nacho cheese and fried eggs and salsa and ALL THE THINGS.

recipes

November 17, 2014

The Best Creamed Spinach

I’m not quite sure how I did it, but I was low-carb for the last two years of my college life. I know… I constantly ask myself HOW??! During this time, I had short lived tech support job at the campus computer lab. This was over 13 years ago so the internet was a different beast. At that time, I was obsessed with changing my Winamp skins and downloading TV-show theme songs on Napster. While I was sitting in the computer lab, I remember having some weird/random craving for creamed spinach and I spent one of my whole shifts looking for a good recipe online. That was one of the first things I made from the internet. The image of me following directions that I printed OFF THE COMPUTER in my little college apartment is somehow burned into my brain. And here we are now… I have a food blog and have been making this dish for 13+ years.

If you’ve listened to one of our old podcasts, I think I talked about the period of my life where I ate creamed spinach like it was going out of style. THIS IS THE CREAMED SPINACH I WAS TALKING ABOUT. Over the years I’ve made so many versions. I’ve added shrimp and pesto. Sometimes mushrooms make an appearance. I made it with artichoke hearts and that went over well because it was kind of like a warm artichoke spinach dip. I’ve used some as a stuffing for meat dishes and I think there was a time where I mixed in some marinara and served it with chicken parmesan. I have a tendency to make things repeatedly until I get sick of them.

As a result, this creamed spinach recipe has been a once a year dish for Thanksgiving but after making this batch yesterday and it NOT being Thanksgiving (YET) I’m thinking it might need to be added back into the rotation. There’s something about churning out a huge vat of food and making a whole dinner that has the power to turn you off from making/eating something. You know what I’m saying?

For this recipe, I always use frozen chopped spinach because I love the texture and the ease. The creaminess comes from the marriage of cream cheese and Parmesan. I have to say that during the Thanksgiving crunch, the creamed spinach dish sometimes gets left in the oven too long and there’s a nice crispy Parmesan crust that forms. I don’t mind. In fact, I’m 100% into it.

Inspiration

November 16, 2014

And I Quote:

my everyday life, Photography

November 15, 2014

My Everyday Life: Week 46

Here’s what this past week looked like:

My baby.

Ginkgo trees are my favorite.

Afternoon light.

Snack time.

Pouty.

November 14, 2014

I love lists, Friday!

It’s important to make time for rest & solitude.
Things you can organize by color!
I secretly wish I could live in this tiny apartment.
Oscar Wilde was witty!
Facts about Starbucks.
My brain likes looking at this.
This also pleases me greatly.
I’m gonna hafta make this for the holidays.
I love Louis CK.
Any recipe that has the word DRUNKEN is alright with me.
Did you know I’ve never made a Shepherd’s Pie? Time to change that.
What stores should really be called…this is hilarious.
The transformation is incredible.
I love Heidi’s thoughts on Maintaining a Long Term Blog
What a beautiful DIY project for a wedding!
I’d love to make a necklace like this one.
This backsplash situation is gorgeous.
Our Mommy Problem. Oh this is it.
I’ve seen a few of these movies.
I’m totally an INFJ.

recipes

November 13, 2014

Chocolate Dipped Clementines

Sometimes you just need to put chocolate chips in a bowl….melt them in the microwave… and dip clementines in the melty chocolatey goodness and call it a day. You know what I’m saying??!!

recipes

November 11, 2014

Maple Bourbon Pumpkin Butter

New post! Maple Bourbon Pumpkin Butter

I’ve made quite a few recipes that involve pumpkin butter and I almost always get a comment asking if I’ve made my own. The answer is NO, but now it is YES. Yes, I’ve made my own pumpkin butter and it’s REALLY REALLY EASY. Of course I added bourbon to my pumpkin butter, because that’s how I operate.

It’s November which means we’re all kind of expected to GO GO GO. I’m a fan of making life easy for myself. Shortcuts are always welcome and recipes that don’t take a ton of effort are my wheelhouse. I just typed wheelhouse. Sorry about that.

If you’re thinking about giving the gift of treats this year, you should really add this Maple Bourbon Pumpkin Butter to your lineup. It’s kind of an unexpected gift because somehow pumpkin gets lost under the fold of COOKIE NATION. People love a little something special they can add to their regular meal rotation. You could pair a small jar with a bigger jar of homemade granola as a hostess gift. I’d write a little card that says Just Add Yogurt! Or maybe if you’re feeling adventurous, you’ll make your own? I’m pretty sure the lucky recipient of this pumpkin butter will appreciate the smooth texture (thanks to a whirl in the Vitamix!) and cinnamon-y bourbon notes. I bet it would make an even better addition to a milkshake…