Eats: Breakfast poutine

Well hey there guys! Yes, I'm still here and still blogging. I've been a little overwhelmed with getting our wedding invitations ready to send on Saturday; I kind of waited too long to print my designs and order my envelopes, and now I'm scrambling to address, stuff, stamp and seal everything. After spending most of my weekend on that project, I think I've finally caught up. Hand-calligraphing 130 invites is no small feat!

But this isn't a wedding post; this is a post about some freaking awesome food I made a couple of weekends ago. I was inspired by something Sydney got for breakfast a while back: breakfast poutine. I've been wanting to tackle a poutine recipe for a LONG time now, and combining it with my favorite meal--breakfast--was just too good to pass up.


I don't like to toot my own horn, but it. was. incredible. This was mostly because I used the best cheese I've ever eaten in my life. Traditional poutine uses cheese curds, but I had this incredible black truffle white cheddar cheese I picked up on my way back from my parents' house in February. Between Columbus and my parents' town, there's this place called Grandpa's Cheesebarn. I've been passing this establishment regularly for the past eight years, and only recently decided to stop in. Those eight years may have been one of the biggest wastes of my life. If you like cheese and are anywhere near Ashland, Ohio, you have to go. No question; it must be done.

Anyway, the dish itself was easy. I used some frozen hash brown potato cube things in lieu of french fries, topped them with the cheese and some brown gravy, then threw an over-medium egg on top of that and served with a side of bacon. I could straight-up eat that dish for breakfast, lunch and dinner. The truffle cheese is gone, sadly, but I'll be venturing up past Ashland later this month so I'm sure I will stop in again and I may or may not drop a good $40 on cheese. Again.

Have you made any epic meals lately?

Eats: Balsamic-glazed steak with orzo risotta and green beans

This Christmas, Matt's sister and brother-in-law gifted us a fantastic Chicago Cutlery knife set. (It was on our wedding registry, which is even cooler if you ask me.) We'd been working with two hand-me-down knife sets that we'd each had since getting our first apartments in college, so...seven or eight years now? Crap. We're old. Anyway, I was so excited at the prospect of finally working with some stellar knives that I looked up a meal that involved a ton of chopping, slicing and cutting so as to test out as many of the knives in one go as I could. I was not disappointed with the balsamic-glazed steak kebabs and orzo "risotto", both in terms of taste and knife-using-requirements. We even busted out the steak knives, despite the fact that the kebab pieces were small and tender enough to do without. It was just too much fun!


Sometimes I post full recipes here, but this time I'm just going to link them. Mainly because I followed the recipes to a T and didn't really improvise or adapt them at all. I like to follow recipes exactly the first time or two I make them, then tweak as needed if the dish makes it into our regular rotation. I highly recommend both the balsamic-glazed steak kebabs and the orzo "risotto". The orzo came out a bit thicker (and honestly, more risotto-esque) than the picture on the original site, but it was delicious nonetheless. For the green beans, I just threw them in the steamer and set it over simmering water for, I dunno, five minutes? Seven? I like my cooked veggies crunchy, so adjust the cooking time to your preferences. I then just tossed them with a little butter and salt. When you have that many other flavors going on, you need one side to stay semi-simple.

I promise at some point I'll do a post on all the cool photography gear I received/bought this Christmas season. Right now I'm swamped with photo shoots that have allowed me to use said gear, a couple freelance writing deadlines for the bridal magazine, and of course eight billion wedding crafts. I decided to save all the wedding craft posts for after the wedding, partly to help keep an element of surprise for readers who also are attending the big event (hi, Aunt Kathleen!) and partly because I feel like I barely have enough time (less than four months!!) to do the crafts themselves, let alone the photographing/writing that's needed to do posts on them. But just so you have an idea of what to expect: There will be fabric flowers! Wine-bottle vases! A birdcage veil! Pocket invitations! Probably some other stuff that I'm forgetting at the moment! DIY brides for the win, amiright?

26 in 26 update: Local eats

I made a list of 26 things I want to do/see/make/experience in my 26th year. Read more on that here.

So one of the things I am really loving on my 26 in 26 is the commitment to try one new (to me) local bar or restaurant each month. Columbus has such an amazing local food scene, and in the four years since I moved here, I've tried an embarrassingly small percentage of what the city has to offer. Sure, I've hit up amazing places like Northstar Cafe, Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams, Dirty Frank's and the Blue Danube more than I care to admit. But in the interest of documenting only new experiences (and to avoid boring you guys with the same old over and over), here's what I've tasted so far:

The Pearl.
Columbus-ites will recognize this as one of Cameron Mitchell's newest endeavors. Nestled in the south end of the Short North, this seafood restaurant-slash-oyster bar has a wonderfully hipster aesthetic that is trendy without being overpowering or distracting.

I chose this for my birthday dinner, and was definitely not disappointed. Matt and I got drinks (the Kentucky Mule was phenom and served in the traditional copper mug, of course) and appetizers (jalapeńo corn spoon bread for Matt and I honestly don't remember what I had...the spinach salad maybe?) to start, then split the Shellfish Tower (pictured). That tower was...well, a tower. It was sooo much food--a dozen each of raw oysters and broiled clams, half a pound of chilled peel-and-eat shrimp and chilled crab meat. It. Was. Incredible.

Oliver's.
This place opened up in the alley next to my building downtown, and I knew the second I saw the tagline — burgers. steaks. bourbon. — that I'd have to try it. Probably more than once. On my first visit, I had the mac & cheese burger and garlic fries, because I'm basically unable to resist mac & cheese. I had the actual dish itself, sans burger, on a return visit. I actually think I got a bad batch on that second time; the cheese was kind of clumpy, like the sauce had boiled when it wasn't supposed to. But the mac on that first burger was spot-on!

I also tried the bourbon, because duh. They infuse their own bourbon in-house, and they have more than a dozen flavors. I tried the vanilla-fig one, which was superb, and it's my goal to get through all of them. Even the tobacco one, which I've been told is actually quite good.

Little Rock/Jailhouse : ROCK.
My friend Kathryn insisted that the hot dogs served up at Paddy Wagon, the food truck that partners with Little Rock bar in Italian Village, were better than the aforementioned Dirty Franks. Now, anyone who knows me knows that dem's fightin' words, so I took her to task. The hot dogs were quite good, but smaller than Dirty Frank's and slightly more expensive. Still, my Lunch on the LAWn dog (crushed kettle chips, baked beans and cheddar, plus potato salad that I chose to get on the side because I'm picky) and loaded baked potato pierogi were very, very tasty. I don't remember the name of the drink Little Rock served up — I think it had "Elvis" in it — but it was, yet again, a Kentucky Mule. And it was delish.

Cray Eatery & Drinkery.
Kate suggested this place when I insisted she and Chasity and I meet up for the first time in way too long. She warned me that I'd hate the website (she was right...Papyrus font? Seriously??) but that the menu looked good. I saw "chicken and waffle slider" and was immediately on board. I was totally going to order another Kentucky Mule here, but had had a rough night prior and stuck with water. Chas and Kate got Moscow Mules, though, and let me try a sip. It was refreshing, but overall I was pretty glad I didn't imbibe. My poor head/stomach were pretty glad, too.

The food, while tasty, was a bit of a let-down. I felt that the portions were just a bit too small for the price. Each slider (which is 95% of the menu) is individually priced. So I got the chicken and waffle slider, of course ($4.50) and a grilled cheese one ($3). For those prices, I expected more than a reheated frozen waffle (that wasn't even toasted) on the former and on the latter, a bun that you'd find in the grocery store, packaged in 12-to-a-tray for a few bucks. You know, the kind that's sold in a plastic bag, and you have to pull the rolls apart by hand? The chicken was really good, but the grilled cheese concoction was wholly unsatisfying. It wasn't grilled; I'm pretty sure they just popped the bottom bun in the oven for a second to melt the cheese. Or maybe they microwaved it. I don't want to complain too much, but I wouldn't go back again for food. The cocktails, possibly. There were a lot of interesting choices.

Soooo that's it! I have a few places picked out for the next few months, and in fact I find myself having to hold back so I don't go overboard and hit all the places on my list in one month :)

So far, this is the most successful multiple-task item on my list; I've been doing so-so on the photo a day project, and quite horribly on the house projects. But I'll have updates on those too, as update-able things happen :)

Eats: Ravioli with sage-walnut butter sauce and balsamic reduction

Most of the time, I make dinner for Matt and myself. Once in a while, I get lazy and he does it. But sometimes...sometimes we tag-team dinner, and that is almost always the best idea ever.

Tag-team dinners usually involve the grill, because I've never grilled anything in my life, Matt loves grilling and our kitchen is just way too small for two people to cook in it. So yesterday afternoon, when I suggested we pick up some steaks to go with a ravioli recipe I wanted to try, Matt was pretty excited. Ok, I'll be honest, we both were. Steak is awesome.

It was an unconventional pairing, I'll admit, but I really wanted to make that ravioli because I had a TON of fresh sage that a neighbor gave us. And frankly, chicken just sounded boring.

About halfway through making the recipe, I decided photography was in order. I mean, seriously:




For real though. Straight-up mouth-watering, amiright?

The full recipe for the ravioli is over on the Food Network website, but here's a little rundown:

As a sidenote, I used frozen ravioli when the recipe called for refrigerated pasta. Frozen was fine, but I have no doubt that refrigerated would be even better.

So basically you just bring some balsamic vinegar, honey and a bay leaf to a boil in a small saucepot, let it boil for four to five minutes, then reduce the heat to simmer and cover it. It'll thicken and just become this gorgeous glaze that's totally drool-worthy. Protip: Use the back burner, and definitely DON'T lean over the pot while the vinegar is reducing. Trust me. It hurts.

While the balsamic vinegar stuff is happening, melt some butter in a skillet and bring large pot of water to a boil for the ravioli. When the butter's melted, add in lots of fresh sage and some chopped walnuts. The walnuts will toast up in about three minutes, which is likely how long the ravioli will take, too. (Or at least, that's how long my frozen stuff took.)

Add about a cup of the pasta water to the skillet and bring to a boil. Let it boil for a couple minutes, until it's reduced by half. Reserve another half-cup of pasta water, then drain. Add the drained ravioli to the skillet, tossing to coat and adding some of the reserved water if needed to loosen. Then stir in a whole bunch of Parmesan — my favorite part, natch. Stir to combine well.


Then you're ready to go! Just dish out the ravioli and drizzle with the balsamic reduction. To help pair the steak, we brushed it with butter on the grill and topped it with more fresh-grated Parmesan. (My friend Emily got me a Parm grater a while back and let me tell you, it has been amazing. I highly recommend getting one!)


What can I say? Matt and I make a great team :)

Have you made anything delicious lately? Tell me about it in the comments! I've been looking for some new recipes lately...

Food Fridays: Potato beer-cheese soup

So I had this post slated for Dec. 13th, but I got a teensy bit distracted by the whole omg-i'm-getting-engaged thing ;) And then it was pre-holiday craziness on the 20th, and December clothes budget posting on the 27th, and here we are. But I guess that's okay, because it is freaking COLD outside throughout most of the U.S. (and Canada, I can only assume). So you should probably make this to warm yoself up, like, now. When you do make this recipe, you will understand my need to deeply and profusely apologize for the delay. I'm not even kidding. This is one of the best--and easiest--soups I've made, probably ever.


I honestly just started drooling.
With a lot of potato-based soups, you have to puree the potatoes after you cook them to create a smooth, starchy base. Not so with this one; it's chunky and delicious. Which is good because my blender is crap, I don't have an immersion blender, and my food processor is most definitely not liquid-tight. Why yes, I have splattered my walls during an ambitious attempt at another potato-based soup.

Now normally, I adapt recipes a bit and post the adapted version in full here. But with this dish, I pretty much followed it to a T. I think I omitted the carrot and celery, because we didn't have any, and sprinkled a little dried celery seed over the potatoes as they cooked.

The one thing I didn't really like about the recipe linked above is that it just called for any "light-colored ale." Now, I'm not a big beer drinker and was about to just use good ol' Budweiser or something. But guess what. That's a lager. And apparently, that makes a difference. So I sent Matt out to find something, and he came back with the beauty pictured above: an Agave Wheat ale from Breckenridge Brewery. Wheat beers are one of the few styles I enjoy, so I had one with dinner and it was delicious. If you can't find this exact brew, any non-flavored wheat beer (i.e., no fruit flavors) or even a more bitter IPA would do just fine.

Oh, and one last tip: Make sure you get a good, crusty bread or baguette to go with this. I am not exaggerating when I say you will want to soak up every last drop from the bottom of your bowl! Matt and I literally collapsed onto the couch after dinner; it took several minutes to muster up the energy to clean up afterwards. Food coma for the win!

Food Fridays: Spaghetti with spinach, snap peas and prosciutto

Alrighty then, like I said yesterday, this is among my favorite meals. I freaking love prosciutto. And snap peas/spinach are both on the very, very short list of veggies that I willingly eat. Plus, it's a pretty easy, one-pan (plus the spaghetti pot, obvs) meal. I will say this, however: you really have to do all the prep work before you start cooking. I usually don't, and not pre-prepping makes this recipe super stressful to make. So prep it up! Also, this makes enough for four, and it's kind of hard to cut in half because of the measurements. So...yeah. Okay, enough chatting, here's the recipe. I slightly adapted it from Food Network magazine.


Ingredients:
- 12 ounces spaghetti
- 1/3 cup cooking sherry
- 2 cloves garlic, smashed
- 3 wide strips of lemon peel (I usually use about half of the lemon's worth of peel)
- 5 tbsp butter, sliced into seven or so thin pieces
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- salt and pepper
- 1 bunch spinach (about 6 cups), roughly torn/chopped
- 2 cups sugar snap peas (I always use fresh, frozen doesn't really work with this)
- 1/4 pound prosciutto, torn into pieces
- 1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped
- Parmesan-Romano cheese

Bring a large pot of water to a boil, salt liberally and add the pasta. Keep an eye on it; you'll cook it to just al dente.

While that's happening, bring the wine, garlic and lemon peel to a simmer in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Once it's simmering, add the butter one or two slices at a time, whisking as it melts. Keep whisking until all the butter's melted, then add the olive oil one tablespoon at a time. (While still whisking. I know, it's a lot of whisking. Bear with me.)

Add about a teaspoon of salt, and pepper to taste. Add the snap peas and cook for about three minutes, then add the spinach and cook until wilted, another couple of minutes. Discard the lemon and garlic. (I usually do this before I add the spinach, actually, because it's kind of hard to pick out once the spinach is all up in there.)

When the pasta's ready, ladle out about 1/4 cup of cooking water and drain the pasta. Throw the spaghetti into the skillet, adding a tablespoon or two of the water. Sprinkle another teaspoon of salt over everything and toss, adding more water as needed to loosen. Sprinkle with a bit of the Parmesan-Romano (which you can find at the grocery store, right next to the regular Parmesan in one of those shelf-safe plastic shakers) and toss some more.

Divide the pasta/veggie mix up among four plates, then top with the prosciutto, parsley and more cheese. And don't worry; this reheats pretty well...just refrigerate the prosciutto separately and don't microwave it. So, dinner for two after all? Sure. I also make this recipe with the same amount of sauce stuff and slightly less pasta, and it works well for Matt and I. We're both pretty voracious eaters :)

Recap: Anniversary dinner

You guys. Oh, my God you guys. This weekend, Matt and I went out to celebrate our five-year anniversary, and we had the best dinner EVER. I know I use superlatives a lot, but this was quite literally THE best meal of my entire life, and Matt agrees. I kind of failed on the photo front — I was rushed for outfit photos because I didn't start getting ready early enough, and I completely forgot to take a photo of Matt and I together – but I did get a couple good snaps for the evening.


dress, bracelet: H&M
necklace: The Limited
shoes: Target
lipstick: "Rich" by Covergirl
I didn't even get a shot of the back of this dress, but it's the zipper-all-the-way-down-the-back one from Friday's clothes budget post. Matt got all decked out in his gray suit, in which he looks fine as hell, but like I said, I didn't get a shot :( The following pics don't even do the food justice, because the restaurant was pretty dim and I didn't want to use the flash on my phone...discretion seemed prudent there.

When I made the reservation earlier in the week, they asked if it was for a special occasion. I told them and didn't think much of it...until we got to the restaurant (it's The Refectory in Upper Arlington, for you Columbus-ites) and the host — or rather, maître d'...this is a fancy French restaurant — wished us happy anniversary. As did the woman who walked us to our table. And our waiter. And when we opened out menus, this greeted us:


Pardon my French, but that is some fine fucking service. We've never really eaten at a five-star, fine dining restaurant before. And the service at places like that is just out of this world and completely unlike anything else I've ever experienced. They put my napkin in my lap for me. I don't know why I find that so noteworthy, but I do. And when I got up to use the restroom? They re-folded it and put it back on the table. There was a guy whose sole job was to dish out bread, deliver drinks and scrape the crumbs off our table with a little scooper thing in between courses. Fancy. As. Hell. The waiter was also super patient when I couldn't decide between three dishes, and helped me pick out wines as well. (One of them, a house Muscat-Viognier blend, was so good that I'm now on a hunt to find a few bottles to keep at home.)

So anyway, then we got to the food. We split a special appetizer for the evening. I don't know what it was called, but it had three kinds of fish and shrimp and veggies and all sorts of other deliciousness, wrapped up in a puff pastry. I've never tasted anything like it. I even ate the mushrooms in that dish, which for me is a HUGE deal. I don't eat fungi. But oh man. It was that good.


Then was the soup/salad course. Matt got a Caesar salad, and I got this mussel soup, and we switched off. I could have picked that soup bowl up by the little lion-face handles and drank it all in one gulp. But I didn't, because I am a classy lady. Sort of. It didn't photograph very well (cream-based soups rarely do), but here's that sweet lion face:


Then came the main course. Uh. Muh. Guhd. Matt got filet mignon, of course, and I got lamb tenderloin. Both were just incredible. The steak especially was phenomenal; it was cooked perfectly and practically melted in your mouth.


And then, dessert. Oh, desert. So by the time we finished the main course, we'd been at the restaurant for about two and a half hours and we were so full, I thought they'd have to roll us out the door. I asked the waiter if the crème brûlée was worth overstuffing ourselves and he swore it was. He was not lying. There's even a story about how this crème brûlée came to be, which the waiter was kind enough to tell us as we ate. (Dessert and a story? I love stories! So great.)


Long story short: The Refectory's chef, Richard Blondin, studied under one of the great French cuisine masters of the 20th century. (I was too wine- and food-filled to catch the name.) So this master had a really great crème brûlée at an Italian restaurant of all places, and was inspired to really perfect the dish on his own. He worked on it for years, finally coming up with the right process of baking and cooling and cooking. And Chef Blondin was able to take that recipe with him to The Refectory. You guys, we were told this was among the best crème brûlées in the country and THEY WERE NOT LYING. I have half a mind to make more frequent reservations there just to eat dessert. And the best part is, the waiter brought out a little complementary pour of a dessert wine to pair with it — an orange muscato that was pretty much to die for. I never really understood wine/food pairings until I ate that dessert with that wine.

Our original post-dinner plans had been to go home and change, then go catch a late showing of Jurassic Park in 3D, because nothing says classy date night like 3D dinosaurs. But when we got home, we simply collapsed into bed. True food coma. It helped that it was 10 by the time we got home, which is our normal old-person bedtime anyway, haha.

So there you have it. The story of the best dinner of my life, and how a new anniversary tradition was born. Because Matt's already informed me that this has to be a recurring locale for our celebration :)

(Just barely) Food Friday: Pork kebabs and sesame rice

Well, I've just been a little bundle of productivity this week. Another freelance project came into my inbox, about Columbus' art scene this time. It's a tight deadline, but it should be a lot of fun to write. (For those of you who were interested in the fashion piece I mentioned a while back, that link will be up here soon!) Anyway, I stayed home tonight to tackle some stuff, get a head start on this project and have a long-overdue Skype date with by bff Emily...and I've only just now realized that I haven't yet posted the recipe I wanted to post today!

So here's a Food Friday post, just a half-hour shy of Saturday. This is slightly adapted from a Real Simple magazine recipe. Sorry for the poor photo; Matt and I were halfway through this meal when I realized it was a) good enough to blog and b) hadn't been blogged yet! Matt graciously allowed me to take pictures of his food, since his plate still had all the ingredients on it (I had already eaten all my pork).


Ingredients:
- 1 cup white rice
- 1 tablespoon dried cilantro
- 2 tablespoons butter
- salt
- 1/2 cup hoisin sauce
- 1/4 cup rice vinegar
- 3 boneless pork chops, about one inch thick
- 1/2 bell pepper
- 5 or 6 green onions
- sesame seeds
- kebab skewers (we have metal ones, but wood ones will work too)

If you're using wood skewers, soak them in water for at least 15 minutes. While they're soaking, preheat your oven to 450 degrees (make sure the top rack is on the highest slot) and bring two cups of water to a boil in a pot.

While you're waiting for the water to boil, chop the bell pepper and green onions into one-inch pieces, and cut the pork into one-and-a-half-inch pieces.

When the water starts boiling, also add a healthy dash of salt, the cilantro and the butter. Once the butter's melted, add the rice, then cover and simmer over low heat until the rice is cooked (usually about 15-20 minutes or so).

While the rice is cooking, combine the hoisin sauce and rice vinegar (both of which can be found in the Asian or international section of most grocery stores) in a bowl. Line a baking sheet with foil, then thread the pork and veggies onto the skewers and place on the foil. Drizzle with half of the hoisin mixture and bake for about five minutes. Turn the skewers, drizzle again and bake for another four minutes or so. (Don't worry if the pork is a teensy bit underdone in the center; new studies have shown that it's perfectly safe to eat pork slightly rare. And that's always better than overdone and chewy!)

Just before serving, sprinkle sesame seeds over the skewers and over the rice. Cause sesame seeds are delicious and there's basically no such thing as too much sesame, if you ask me.

I love this meal because it's so freaking easy, and it's fast, and it's delicious. As evidenced by the fact that I was halfway through it before I realized photos were necessary. Enjoy!

Pin-spiration Monday: Copycat Chick-fil-a nuggets

I can't really write a long post tonight because I'm on deadline, but this weekend I tackled a Pin from long ago: Copycat Chick-fil-a nuggets.

Source: iowagirleats.com via Emma on Pinterest

Now, as someone who absolutely loves Chick-fil-a chicken (the whole "we hate gays" debacle this year was a huge source of inner conflict for me), I can say with all honesty that this recipe really does taste a lot like the delicious fast food goodness.

(Please ignore the mac & cheese. It's from a box. What can I say? I like what I like.)

The secret to this recipe? Pickle juice and powdered sugar. It's true. I could hardly believe it myself. (And if you don't like pickles, no worries; you really can't taste it at all once the chicken's been cooked.) For the full recipe, click the Pin above. There's a honey mustard sauce recipe on that post too, but I don't really like mustard so I didn't make it.

And now, I'm off to write (some more)! While I'm doing that, why don't you enter my giveaway? One day left!

Pin-spiration Monday: Desserts!

So as some of you may or may not know, I'm not much of a baker. It requires precise measuring, which I never bother with, and it just takes too damn long. If I want to make cookies, I want them in like five minutes. Not 40. But our annual Friends Thanksgiving (or Friendsgiving) potluck party was this past weekend, and I felt like being adventurous. So I signed Matt and I both up for desserts, and told him not to worry about making anything because I'm just that awesome. (Ok, so maybe I didn't say it quite like that, but you get the picture.)

Anyway, I scoured Pinterest for about an hour (that is not a joke), looking for recipes and narrowing them down. And this is what I came up with (click the Pins to get the actual recipes):

Source: eatliverun.com via Emma on Pinterest

That sweet deliciousness you see before you is a cinnamon apple braid. It looked kind of complex, but the blogger swore it was super easy, so I thought I'd give it a shot. (I had a little snafu as I was making the dough...apparently, when the blogger over at Eat Live Run said to "mix the dough using an electric mixer on medium high speed," she must have forgotten to finish the sentence with "using a dough hook." Because I'll tell you, using a regular pair of eggbeater attachments did. not. cut it. The dough — which is fairly like bread dough — actually climbed up the mixer attachment and into the machine itself. Which was kind of like watching something out of a horror movie. So after a lot of yelling and Matt having to dump flour all over my hands and the mixer so I could continue, I somehow managed to produce this:


Sweet baby cheebus, that is hands down the most beautiful-looking baked good I've ever made. Usually my stuff tastes ok, but it's not very pretty. Because of the whole "I don't need to measure" thing. But this...this had me so excited, I had to take a picture before I baked it. And it looked even better after I took it out of the oven and glazed it:


My mouth is seriously watering. Luckily, I made two and there were leftovers (a lot of people brought a lot of food...and not many people made it all the way to dessert, haha), so I've been munching on this stuff for breakfast, after lunch and as a before-bed snack. An apple a day, right?

I also attempted to make mini-muffins using this recipe for snickerdoodle muffins:

Source: eatmedelicious.com via Emma on Pinterest

They tasted pretty good, but didn't really look like the photo. I think that maybe because I made small versions, I should have changed the baking temperature and/or length from the original recipe. Ah, well. They're really good bite-sized snacks. In fact, while I was editing these photos, I was pretty much compelled to run to the kitchen and pop one (yay leftoevers!) in my mouth before settling in to do the post part of this post. Yummm.

Food Friday: Mac and cheese soup

It's no secret that I have a long-standing and intense love affair with mac and cheese. Baked, creamy, from-a-box or made from scratch...as long as it has noodles and cheese, I'm in. So when I saw this recipe for mac and cheese soup in Cuisine at Home magazine, I knew I had to put my own spin on it. Blue cheese and some other unusual flavorings give this soup an unexpected kick, so it's far from your average bowl of mac.


Ingredients:
- 1 /12 cups dry macaroni (for this, I used some spiral-shaped cavatappi instead)
- 2 tbsp unsalted butter
- 1/3 cup flour
- 1/2 cup dry white wine or cooking sherry
- 2 cups chicken broth
- 1/8 tsp nutmeg
- 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
- 2 cups milk
- 4 cups shredded Cheddar
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- salt
- 1/4 cup crumbled bleu cheese
- 2 tbsp minced fresh chives

Start by cooking your tubular pasta of choice in a pot of salted water according to package directions. When it's ready, drain and set aside.

Melt the butter in a large saucepan, then stir in flour and cook (stirring constantly) for about one minute to make a roux. Pour in the wine/sherry to deglaze and simmer until the wine is nearly evaporated.

Stir in the chicken broth, nutmeg and cayenne. Simmer until it thickens a little (about five minutes or so), then whisk in the milk and let it slowly warm up. Whatever you do, don't let it boil. It gets grainy and gross, and no one wants that.

Stir in the cheddar cheese, about a cup at a time, letting it melt completely before adding the next batch. Then stir in the lemon juice, a dash of salt (taste it to make sure it's enough) and the pasta.

Remove your saucepan from heat and top with bleu cheese and chives. YUM. Matt and I both loved this soup, but next time I think I'm gonna try making some homemade pretzels (from a recipe on Pinterest, no doubt) to go with it. DOUBLE YUM.

Food Fridays: Penne with spinach, gorgonzola and walnuts

So I recently decided to go back on the rotating-menu plan for dinners each week, mostly because I was getting sick of the "What do you feel like tonight?" "I don't know, what do you want?" "I don't know, wanna just get take out?" routine. So a few weekends ago, I took several hours and planned out six weeks' worth of menus with some new recipes to try and, of course, some new favorites. One of the new recipes is this penne dish, from a junk mailer I got once called Fine Cooking Magazine. And oh-my-freaking-gosh you guys. This dish. Is. The. Bomb.

Best of all, it re-heats really, really well. So I can make this full four-serving recipe, then have enough leftover to eat for lunch the next day. Score!

Ingredients:
- kosher salt, pepper
- 8 oz. fresh baby spinach (about 10 lightly packed cups)
- 1/4 to 1/2 cup coarsely chopped walnuts (adjust according to taste)
- 12 oz uncooked penne (about 3 1/2 cups)
- 3/4 cups heavy cream
- 1/2 cup crumbled gorgonzola
- 3 tbsp chopped fresh chives

Make sure there's a rack positioned in the center of your oven, then preheat to 350 degrees. While it's heating, bring a large pot of water to a boil and salt generously. Put the spinach in a colander in the sink.

Spread the walnuts out evenly on a baking sheet and toast until dark golden-brown, about six to eight minutes. You'll be able to smell them when they're ready. Oh man. I just started drooling. When they're done, set aside to cool.

Cook the penne to al dente. Reserve about half a cup of the cooking water, then drain the pasta in the colander over the spinach. This, and the hot pasta lying on top of the spinach for the next few minutes, actually cooks the greens. How cool is that?

Add the gorgonzola and cream to a 10- to 12-inch nonstick skillet over medium-high heat and bring to a gentle boil. Add pepper to taste, as well as a pinch of kosher salt. Cook, stirring frequently, until the mixture is slightly thickened and the gorgonzola is mostly melted. It should take about two to three minutes.

Reduce the heat to medium, add the pasta and spinach, and stir to coat. Add half of the walnuts and chives and stir again to combine. Cook until the pasta absorbs some of the sause, about two minutes more. If the mixture gets too thick, add some of the reserved cooking water to loosen it up. Season to taste with salt and pepper, if needed. Dish out into serving bowls and top with the remaining walnuts and chives, and try not to wolf it down like a starved person. (Trust me, it's harder than it sounds!)

Pin-spiration Monday: A cop-out

Ok, I'll be the first to admit that this week's Pin-spiration is a bit of a complete cop-out. But with good reason! I have a few bigger projects in mind, and it's taking longer than I thought it would to gather supplies and, you know, find time to actually complete the thing. And this weekend is another wedding (the last of the year, thank goodness), so I probably won't have much time to work on projects then, either. So we'll see what happens ;)

So anyway, I did attempt a recipe Pin for this week. And it was an epic, unforgivable, inedible fail. Here's the inspiration:

Source: blogs.babble.com via Emma on Pinterest

Looks delicious, doesn't it? Creamy and cheesy and, according the original source, an easy microwaveable cup of yum. Here's how mine turned out:


What unholy terror has my microwave produced?! It's chunky, not creamy, and the cheese looks like little curds of gross. Not to mention, the cup boiled over multiple times, turning my microwave into a gloopy, slimy mess. I'm not quite sure what went wrong here, as I followed the source's directions to a T. Ick. I guess there's always next week?

In other, non-disgusting news, you still have one day left to enter my giveaway for some free jewelry? Helloooo, what are you waiting for?!

Food Friday: Bacon for dessert

You read that correctly. As a little birthday treat to four of my friends (who all have a birthday within one week of each other), I made maple-bacon cupcakes and took them to the joint birthday party. And they. were. phenom.




These are pretty easy, but a little time-consuming, especially if you don't have a griddle to cook all the bacon at once. But boy, are they worth it. This recipe makes 15 to 24 bacon-y bits of goodness, depending on how full you fill the cupcake liners.

Ingredients:
- 3 cups flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 2 sticks (1 cup) butter, room temperature
- 1 1/3 cups brown sugar
- 4 large eggs
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 2/3 cup buttermilk
- 2/3 cup maple sugar
- 1 pound bacon

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line your muffin trays with cupcake liners. Cook the bacon until it's nice and crispy, and set over paper towels to drain. While it's draining, grab a large bowl and whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt until well-combined. Set aside about three or four pieces of bacon; chop the rest into very small pieces.

In a separate bowl, cream the butter and brown sugar with an electric mixer. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then beat in the vanilla. With the mixer on a slow setting, stir in the buttermilk and syrup. Then gradually add the dry ingredients, using the mixer to incorporate. About halfway through, I had to switch to a wooden spoon because the batter got too thick for my crappy hand mixer. Finally, mix in the finely chopped bacon pieces.

Carefully spoon the batter into your cupcake liners. I filled mine too full and had fewer cupcakes; I'd recommend filling them 1/2- to 3/4 full for more, smaller cupcakes. Or you know, fill them all the way for fewer, giant cupcakes. Anyway, bake 15-18 minutes, or until a toothpick pushed into the center of a cupcake comes out clean.

After the cupcakes are done, remove from the pan and set on the counter or a cookie rack to cool. While they're cooling, you can make the icing. The icing I made didn't turn out too well, so I'm not going to include it. (Unless, you know, you guys want that recipe. For what it's worth, I didn't like it...it was just powdered sugar, butter, milk and maple syrup.)

After the cupcakes are fully cooled, top them with frosting. Grab those last three or four whole pieces of bacon and chop them into large pieces, to garnish the top of the frosting. Try not to drool.

(Pro-tip/fat-kid-tip: One of my friends said he ate a few cupcakes for breakfast the next morning because they tasted like pancakes...he toasted them and slathered them in butter. Oh. My. God. Why didn't I think of that?!)

'Tis the season

Well, the madness is in full swing. In the last two weekends, I've hosted/gone to two bachelorette parties and attended a quadruple-birthday party. Sadly, I didn't have time for outfit photos for any of these events, so I'll have to reshoot them later this week. Before Friday, when I head out of town for Abby's wedding (!!!)

Anyway, here are some pics of what I've been up to:



Cassie, Anna, Katie, Ellen, Sarah, me, Abby, Chelsea and Courtney at Abby's bachelorette. Photo taken by my mom, edited by Sarah.


Me, Abby and Ellen...sisters are fun! Photo taken by Chelsea. (Rudely-shaped straw blurred for propriety's sake by me, haha.)


Tiffany, Amy, Emily, me, Theresa and Jessica at Tiffany's bachelorette. Photo by the waitress at Bar Louie.


Bacon-y goodness.

Needless to say, it's been a lot of fun so far. And don't worry, I will be posting the recipe for those maple-bacon cupcakes for Food Friday. I made them for the quadruple-birthday party last night. (Four of our friends have birthdays within a week of each other, so we celebrate them all at once for the sakes of our livers, haha.) Those cupcakes tasted like breakfast :)

Food Fridays: Spaghetti Carbonara with chicken and asparagus

This is by far one of my favorite quick-dinners, because I almost always have all of the ingredients on hand, and it's easy, and it's delicious. Once again, I've adapted a Rachael Ray recipe to include fewer of her crazy ingredients. And I added chicken and veggies to make this a more filling meal.





Ingredients (makes enough for four):
- 1/3 package of bacon
- 1/2 pound chicken breast, diced
- garlic powder
- 16-oz box of spaghetti or linguine
- about 4-6 stalks of asparagus
- olive oil (I like to use an arbequina oil, but extra virgin works too)
- 4 cloves of garlic, minced
- 1/2 cup white wine, cooking sherry or chicken stock
- 2 large egg yolks (keep the whites for omelets!)
- 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
- salt and pepper
- red pepper flakes (optional)

Start with a large stock pot of water. Set it over high heat and bring it up to a hard boil. While the water's heating, cook the bacon in the biggest skillet you have until it's good and crispy. When it's done, set the bacon on paper towels to drain, and drain out most of the bacon grease. Leave about a tablespoon or so. Add the diced chicken to the pan, season with garlic powder, salt and pepper, and cook through. When it's done, remove the chicken from the pan and onto a plate. Cover with foil to keep warm. Return the skillet to the oven and add the garlic and red pepper flakes, if using. Add a little olive oil if the pan needs it.

By now your water should be boiling. Add a small palmful of salt, then add the noodles. While those are cooking, crumble the bacon you set aside and add it and the chicken pieces back to the skillet with the garlic and pepper flakes. Add the wine/sherry/chicken stock and let it reduce by half, which should take about a minute or two over medium-high heat.

Drop the asparagus into the pasta water and let cook for about 2-3 minutes. Remove it, chop it into pieces about an inch long, and add to the skillet with everything else. (Note: Frozen peas also work well for this. Just let them thaw a little first, then boil for a few minutes with the pasta then add to the skillet to finish cooking.)

In a small bowl, beat the egg yolks. While you're whisking, add a small ladle-full (about 1/4 cup or so) of the boiling pasta water.

Drain the pasta and add it to the skillet. Remove from heat. Drizzle the egg mixture over everything, then add the Parmesan cheese and season with salt and pepper. Toss to coat for about two minutes to let the pasta soak up all the sauce. (I usually like to pour everything into the big stock pot to toss it, but if you can manage in your skillet that works too.) Serve with extra cheese and sprinkle with some chopped parsley, if you like.

Food Fridays: Baked mac & cheese

This is, without a doubt, one of my absolute favorite recipes. It's easy, it's DELICIOUS, and it's something of a family recipe. Since there's no real secret, and I've added my own personal touches to the original recipe, I've decided to share it in all its cheesy, bacony, mouthwatering goodness.


Ingredients:
- about half a box of elbow macaroni (rotini, rigatoni or bowtie pasta would probably work well too)
- a bread-bowl-sized roll of sourdough bread
- 4-5 strips of bacon
- about 1/2 to 2/3 cup cottage cheese
- about 1/3 cup sour cream
- 1 egg
- 16-oz package of shredded cheese...I like to use a three-cheddar blend

As with most of my recipes, nothing about this is an exact science. That's what makes it fun! So let's get started.

First, bring water to a boil in a large pot and preheat your oven to 350 degrees. In a separate pan, start cooking the bacon. When the water is boiling, add a good dash of salt and the noodles of your choice and cook until just past al dente. (You want them to be pretty soft, since they're going in the oven.) When they're cooked, drain and return to the pot, off-heat.



Meanwhile, cook the bacon to a nice crisp that will be easy to crumble into pieces. Also meanwhile, rip the sourdough bread into small chunks and throw, a few pieces at a time, into a food processor. Pulse until you have very fine breadcrumbs. You'll have WAY more than you need, but that's okay because you can freeze them and use them for other recipes later. Way to plan ahead!



Okay, so the noodles are already cooked and drained. You now want to do the same with the bacon—lay 'em on a few layers of paper towel, cover with another paper towel and press gently to remove the extra grease. Let cool.



While the bacon is cooling, use a wooden or plastic spoon to mix the sour cream, cottage cheese and egg into the noodles. Make sure the egg yolk gets broken and thoroughly mixed in. Then, mix in about half of the bag of shredded cheese.



Spray a baking pan (I think mine is appx. 9"x13"?) with cooking spray, then spread about half of the noodle mixture into the pan. Sprinkle with a little layer of shredded cheese. Spread the rest of the noodles over that. Crumble the bacon into little pieces over that, then cover the whole thing with the remaining shredded cheese. Remember, there is no such thing as too much cheese.

Bake, covered with foil, for about 15 minutes or until the cheese on top is melted. Then uncover, sprinkle with the breadcrumbs (betcha forgot about those delicious morsels) and bake uncovered for about another 15 minutes, or until the crumbs are all nice and toasty. Try not to eat the entire pan in one sitting...because this also makes a great next-day leftovers meal!



Oh man. I die.

Food Friday and more bloggiversary celebration

It's been AGES since I've done a Food Fridays post. This one is actually pretty basic, but grilling season is upon us so I figured I'd post it. But first, a quick 10 things for the bloggiversary week.

TEN ITEMS FROM MY BUCKET LIST

1. Get married (also: have a family)
2. Buy a house
3. Write a book
4. Own a motorcycle
5. Visit a different country (that’s not Mexico or Canada)
6. See the Northern Lights (also: Grand Canyon, a redwood tree, the Pacific Ocean, Mount Rushmore, various touristy sites in Europe)
7. Be in a friend’s or sibling’s wedding
8. Run a marathon (or at least a half)
9. Fly first class
10. Meet someone famous

And now, the delicious meaty goodness that is one of my favorite meals of all time: Steak and potatoes.


Of course, we paired it with asparagus because that's one of the few vegetables that I really love. This isn't really so much of a recipe post as a "how we threw this together" post, but those are my favorite kinds of meals anyway. When we grill, Matt always handles the meat and I take care of the sides. Cooking with him is fun :)

We started by cutting the potatoes into bite-size pieces and boiling them in water for about five or ten minutes to partially cook them. Then we drained them, patted them dry, and laid them out on a baking sheet. I drizzled them with olive oil, sprinkled with garlic powder, rosemary and thyme, and tossed to cover. Then I threw them in the oven at 350 degrees.

Next, I made the compound butter. It's a really easy and delicious way to dress up a steak a little. I popped the butter in the microwave in five second increments until it was just softened, then mixed in some A1 sauce with a fork. I really wanted to add chives, but alas, we had none. Anyway, then I laid the butter out on some waxed paper and kind of rolled it into a tube shape. I failed to take a photo of this, but I'll probably do a separate post on compound butters someday anyway, so it's okay :) Then I just popped the tube into the freezer.

Next was the asparagus. I always make this the same way: Just trim off the bottom inch or so of the stalks, wash well, dry, and spread out on a baking sheet. I drizzle them with this really fabulous Arbequina olive oil I got at the Giant Eagle Market District, sprinkle with salt, and toss to coat. As I popped them into the oven, Matt threw the steaks on the grill and worked his manly grilling magic.

After about 15 minutes, everything was ready! And man oh man, it was so, so delicious.

Food Fridays: Salmon with asparagus & rice pilaf

Ever since I got Matt a grill for Christmas, the boy's been a regular grilling machine. Snow on the ground? Doesn't phase him. He's still out there, grillin' butter burgers, or steaks, or kabobs, or salmon. I'm just glad he likes his present so much :)

A week or two ago, we were going to do some cedar-plank salmon. But a lack of foresight on our part meant that when 7 pm rolled around, we realized we hadn't soaked the cedar planks. To prevent them from, you know, bursting into flame. So that idea had to be modified.

Instead, Matt seasoned the salmon with a Singapore signature blend from Penzey's Spices (part of a set his mom gave me for Christmas, actually) and some lemon, then wrapped them in foil and threw them on the grill. We could've done the same thing in the oven, really, but he just loves any excuse to use that grill. So I stayed inside, where it was warm and there was a bottle of wine with my name on it, and made the sides.



The asparagus really doesn't require a recipe at all; I just drizzle it in some really amazing olive oil (Giant Eagle Market District's "Arbequina" style) and some kosher salt, then roast it in the oven at 350 degrees for about 10-15 minutes.

The rice pilaf, however, is a recipe I got from Food Network Magazine. It's pretty simple, but it takes a while to cook because that's just how rice is.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup spaghetti, broken into small pieces
2 tbsp butter
1 cup rice
2 cups chicken broth
1 cup water
2 garlic cloves, smashed
1 tsp salt

Toast the spaghetti pieces in a pot over medium-high heat with the butter for about a minute or two. Stir in the rice, then add the chicken broth, water, garlic and salt. Bring to a boil and boil for three minutes. Give everything a good stir, then cover and simmer for 15 minutes. Remove from heat and let sit for about five minutes (note: I always skip this step and it tastes just fine, haha), then fluff with a fork. Remove the garlic because ew, giant chunks of garlic, and stir in some more butter because everything tastes better with more butter. You can stir in some cilantro too, if you want, but I'm not a fan so I usually skip that.

OH AND P.S.!! Don't forget to link up to Bloggers Take the Town THIS SUNDAY. Get your super-cute-but-never-blogged-going-out-evening-clothes photos ready and show us what you got :)

Food Fridays: Slow-cooker pot roast

Remember that pot roast I mentioned a while back? Well, I never took pics of it the first time around, so I made it again last weekend for the sole purpose of shooting it.

"Pot roast again?" Matt whined. "We had this last weekend. Can't you be a little creative in the kitchen?" And I hung my head in shame.

Just kidding. He didn't say anything, as we were both too busy inhaling this food like we hadn't eaten in months. But when it was gone, he sat back and sighed and somehow, I just knew that I could serve up this meal every single Sunday and he wouldn't complain. Hm. Maybe I'll do that...I'm not kidding, this dish really is that good.

I found the original recipe on Martha Stewart's website (I know, I know) and adapted it a little because I can't just make a recipe as directed.


Excuse me while I clean the puddle of drool off my keyboard.

Ingredients (enough for 2 people):
- 1 tbsp cornstarch
- a handful of baby carrots—I would say about 15-20
- half of a large yellow onion, cut into large chunks
- 8-10 small red potatoes, quartered
- 1 beef chuck roast, about 1 and a half to 2 pounds
- 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
- salt and pepper

In your slow-cooker/crock pot/whatever you wanna call it, mix the cornstarch with 2 tbsp cold water until smooth. I found it helps to tilt the slow-cooker a bit, so everything pools in the corner and mixes easier. Add the carrots and pieces of onion, season with salt and pepper, and toss to coat. On top of that layer, add the potato chunks and season with salt and pepper.

Season the chuck roast with salt (use more than you think you'll need, the potatoes tend to soak up excess salt like a sponge) and pepper on both sides. Martha recommends trimming off the excess fat first, but I like to take the Paula Deen approach and leave the fat on because everyone knows that fat is where all the best flavor comes from. Place on top of the potatoes. Then drizzle the whole beautiful thing with the Worcestershire sauce.

Turn the slow-cooker on high and cook for 5-6 hours (my cooker usually gets it done in about 5) or on low for about 10 hours. You'll know it's done when your nose is screaming at you to just go sniff around in the kitchen a bit, and the meat itself falls apart easily with a fork. Martha suggests cutting the roast into thin slices against the grain, but what does she know, Matt and I just split the hunk of meat in half and go at it like cavemen. So...delicious...

(Side note: You can also strain the juices from the bottom of the slow-cooker through a fine-mesh sieve and use it as a dipping sauce or whatever, but I always forget to do this because I'm so distracted by the meat and potatoes part of the dish. So do what you will with that.)

My other favorite thing about this dish? (Besides its mouth-watering incredibleness, of course.) How easy it is to make. It's literally about 10 minutes of prep time, throw it all in the slow-cooker, and pull it all out a few hours later. The hardest part is just waiting for the damn thing to be done!