June 6, 2010

Blueberry Cornmeal Pancakes with Orange Maple Butter

You need to make these NOW.

Make them for dinner if you have to! They are fantastic! And that orange maple butter is OFF THE HOOK! You will seriously find every excuse to eat the leftovers all week long. And please do, because the recipe makes a good amount! I’ll totally kick your ass if any goes to waste! So how are the pancakes? Scrumptious! They taste like a cross between breakfast polenta, a blueberry muffin, and a pancake with a fancy high noon tea vibe (thanks to that butter!) Every now and then you get a little crunch from the cornmeal. It pleases me and I bet you will be pleased too. By the way–your taste buds called and they said their sick of plain old regular pancakes. Throw them a bone and make them something new and different! Do it!

Come on! Look at that BUTTER!!!

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June 3, 2010

Asian Inspired Mango Orange Slaw

They past few weeks have been crazy! The husband was gone for business, leaving me all by myself with Coop. There was the stomach bug that hit Coop first and then left me down for the count. Whoa. I never thought it was possible to lose my appetite and it finally happened! So I’ve been quite timid about eating lately. I’ve been living in Blandsville for the past few days and last night I had enough of it. I needed something that would get me excited about food again. I also was aching to get back in the kitchen because chopping veggies keeps me sane. Is that weird? This salad REALLY REALLY helped. It’s sort of my kick-off-to- summer salad. Although we are a few weeks away, aren’t we? We had a little heat wave yesterday, so that’s my excuse for celebrating early. Yes.

It has a few familiar nuances of salads I’ve made before, but this time mangoes and oranges make their debut appearance in this nice little slaw! They are a colorful and sweet and a good balance when mixed with a few spicy/crunchy elements. The juice of the orange mixed with the Asian dressing creates quite a mouth par-tay! It’s pretty refreshing if you stick the slaw in the fridge for an hour or so before serving. If you are craving some protein, pair it with some grilled shrimp or mix in some savory baked tofu! The tofu adds a nice salty element. You are totally going to crave this one, trust me.
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May 26, 2010

Soba with Salmon and Watercress

Let’s face it. I simply cannot eat Peanut Butter Bacon Cookies that often. If I did, I’d be in BIG trouble! Wanna know how I repent my food sins? I make something ridiculously healthy afterwards and eat that way for a few days. When I was younger, I could have a salad for my next meal and I was free from the tremendous gluttony I subjected myself to. Now, it takes a few days and then I’m in good shape. Some days I eat cereal for dinner because I’m lazy and it’s low in calories. Sucks getting old, huh? I’ve learned that in life, it’s all about balance.

So here’s a nice little recipe I picked up from the recent Body + Soul magazine. It’s totally spa food in the sense that it makes you feel healthy & light after you eat it. You’ll wanna reach for some after a sweaty yoga session or perhaps after you made a lunch out of peanut butter cookies! I was thrown off a little with the addition of buttermilk in the recipe, but somehow it worked out really well. It’s light, slightly creamy, tangy and super simple! With the addition of chives (from my garden!) and salmon, it’s hearty and zesty! If you are a fan of the peppery nature of arugula and the spiciness of radishes, you’ll appreciate the watercress in this dish too! I totally thought Casey wouldn’t be down with this recipe because it isn’t a *meat & potatoes* dish but I’m happy to report he ate more than a few servings! Now that I finished eating healthy…what kind of food sins can I commit now?

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May 23, 2010

Peanut Butter Bacon Cookies

Yes you read that correctly. BACON! These cookies were a birthday treat for my precious bacon-loving friend, Whitney. They were a hit at her pre-birthday tapas celebration last week! Six of us ladies scarfed them down for dessert. Ca-caw!

The recipe comes from my best baking friend, Joy! She’s my go-to person when I want to bake something sweet and different! I love her. I love bacon. I love peanut butter. I love super easy recipes. So it’s a match made in heaven!

Let’s talk about how IN-CRED-IBLE these cookies are! The salty sweet combo is WICKED! They are chewy because of the brown sugar, crispy because of the bacon, and crunchy because of the light sugar coating! My mouth waters as I type this…I really wish I saved a secret stash of them. If you are a bacon lover, this recipe will not disappoint. I’m pretty sure Elvis would have been tickled for a tray full of these! CONTINUE READING

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May 20, 2010

Stuffed Poblanos

Here’s a pretty easy and straightforward recipe for you! You are going to need to whip out your blender for the sauce! There’s a little bit of prep involved with about an hour of cooking–but that’s it. This means you can clean up your kitchen and watch your kid run around outside in the backyard while you wait. Or you can get in an episode of one of those trashy shows you’ve been telling me about! The smell that will waft from your kitchen is worth the effort you put in. You might even find yourself watching commercials instead of fast forwarding…because the scent is so intoxicating. Believe me.

The peppers will get fork tender after all that roasting and the cornmeal/ black bean/ cheese mixture turns part solid and part gooey inside the peppers. It’s as if a tamale mated with a chile relleno and produced a lighter & healthier offspring! (YES- I really just said the word mate!) You are going to want to spoon a bunch of the leftover sauce on your pepper. You’ll probably sit there imagining what else to put that sauce on…if you have any left. It’s quite enjoyable. Go ahead, top it with some hot sauce. You like it spicy, don’t you? You’ll find that the peppers taste even better the next day. Funny what a little overnight stay in the fridge will do to a pepper. Enjoyable, huh?
CONTINUE READING

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May 19, 2010

Carrot Pineapple Bundt Cake w/ Sour Cream Frosting

Somehow I got the idea that you need an occasion to make a cake. Like you can’t just make a cake because it’s a Thursday and you want one. That’s bad. That kind of thinking gets you into trouble. In a perfect world every day is worthy of cake, isn’t it? My excuse/occasion for making this cake was that my husband has been working his ass off for the past few weeks at work and deserved one. And thank god he’s been working hard, because if it wasn’t for that I wouldn’t have this heavenly recipe to share!

Carrot cake! We loooooove carrot cake. A carrot bundt cake? I’m intrigued! A few weeks ago, I showed Casey the photo of this cake from the magazine and he insisted that there wasn’t enough frosting. NOT TRUE. There’s tons! Like a ridiculous amount of it. There was a pool of frosting in the middle of the bundt hole and yes, I went for it. No one witnessed my moment of gluttony so it might not have happened. So how did it go? Extremely well! The best part of this cake? The crunchy caramelized edges you get from using a bundt pan! It reminds me of a cross between a pineapple upside down cake, a coffee cake and carrot cake! Three of my favorites! The tang of the sour cream is a perfect substitution for the classic carrot cake’s cream cheese frosting. Total winner. It’s going in the cake rotation fo’sho!

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May 16, 2010

Blackberry Ginger Sours

I probably shouldn’t drink & blog but I HAFTA tell you that these are SCRUMPTIOUS before I forget! Imagine me saying the word SCRUMPTIOUS with the biggest slur! I’m totally at the slurring stage. SHUT UP!! Don’t make fun of me. I had a gin & tonic on Friday with my neighbor. Gin…a libation that I’ve hated ever since I started my career in drinking. I couldn’t turn away a drink that my neighbor mixed, so I drank it and was pleasantly surprised. The best part about drinking the gin & tonic was how it took the sharp edge off my day. In the past, when I had a sip of gin, all I could taste was pine trees. Now I realize that it really depends what it’s mixed with! Suddenly I like it and am not reminded of Santa and Christmas. Ho ho ho.

I decided to make us some fancy drinks with gin today! Blackberry Ginger Sours! They aren’t super super sweet. They aren’t super sour. They are a perfect balance of adultness with a little bit of fun. Half way through my first drink, I started to feel wonderfully buzzed. It was like I had a nice fuzzy blanket all around me. Yes, I am talking about my buzz. It was glorious. What a nice way to get to my happy place! Oh and wow! I forgot how yummy blackberries are. I can’t remember the last time I had one. When I was a kid? I am so glad they are on my radar again.

Ok that’s enough. I don’t think I’m making sense here. Bottom line=You should make this.
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