Hello, all! Hope your Thanksgiving was as fun-, food-, and family-filled as ours. Well, maybe not quite as much “fun” — I certainly hope nobody else was stuck at the airport for 9 hours on Turkey Day. But that’s a story for another day. Today I want to talk to you guys about Crock Pot Chili and slow cookers**.
You know what’s great about the week leading up to Thanksgiving? Nobody works. Most people take the whole week off to spend time with family, and the people who do stick around for work either take it easy or head home early. In my case, I’m home all the time anyway, but this week I get to have Dan home with me most of the day for company. It’s been a fun couple of days. Dan got to put in extra hours with a new video game he bought, I got someone to cuddle with on the couch (and help coach me through the new Zelda Wii game), and the cats got an extra pair of hands for belly rubbing. Everybody wins! Cuddling, gaming, and cat-rubbing can...
Dan and I had a wonderfully lazy day in yesterday. We woke up late, ate leftovers, sprawled on the couch, teased the cats, played video games (well, Dan did) and watched way too much TV. We didn’t do any work, we didn’t shower, and the only time we left the apartment was to step out onto the balcony and marvel at how warm it was outside. It was fantastic. I highly recommend that you all try it. The only fly in the ointment? When we rummaged through the pantry for sugary snacks, we couldn’t find any cookies. There were plenty of marshmallows, chocolate bars, and Halloween candy, but…no more BJs cookies, no more snickerdoodles, no more jam-filled Madeleines. Do you know how it feels...
If you ask Dan how long we’ve been dating, his response is usually “too long.” He’s joking, of course (I think!), but we really have been dating for a long time. We met at a fraternity rush event when we were 19 years old, starting hanging out all the time, discovered a mutual love for dorky sci-fi/fantasy novels, and before we knew it we were boyfriend/girlfriend. College relationships are like that. But, we made it through college together, survived 3 years of long distance, and navigated the perils of home-buying without murdering each other. That’s something, right? (Dan got me roses! Aren’t they gorgeous?) Anyway, this past Friday was our 6 year anniversary, so we had to do something special to celebrate. For the last...
You know, I could swear that just last week everyone was talking about their Halloween costumes and making ghoulish treats for their Halloween parties. So, it’s kind of mind-blowing that Thanksgiving is only a week away. I’ve been fighting it for as long as I can, but the upcoming holiday + naked trees outside my window tell me that it is definitely fall, almost winter. Yikes! Where does the time go??? Pumpkin flavored treats are incredibly popular this time of year, so I was pretty stunned when Dan told me he’d never eaten anything with pumpkin in it. Not even pumpkin pie. Whhhhaaatttt? How is it possible to grow up having Thanksgiving dinner in America and not eat pumpkin pie? I mean, my family served duck...
You know what the hardest part of food blogging is? Timing your cooking so that by the time you’re ready to pull out your camera, there’s still enough natural light left to shoot decent photos. If you work during the day, that usually means that by the time you get home and start cooking, you’re out of luck until the weekend. Winter is an especially tough time for food bloggers. It gets dark so early! In the spring and summer, and for part of the fall, there’s at least still a chance for pretty decent lighting until 7 or 8pm. In the winter, you’re lucky if there’s any kind of natural illumination in around by 5pm. I started prepping this pull-apart bread around noon, ran a...
Dan and I have been eating a lot of cookies lately. Cookies for breakfast, cookies with lunch, cookies in between meals, and cookies for dinner. Who’s surprised? That’s just what happens when we buy jumbo cookies from BJ’s, and then I go on a baking spree. Not that we’re complaining, of course — neither of us has ever met a cookie we didn’t love. But, while cookies are delicious, they’re definitely not nutritious. And, if you eat too many in one sitting, you’re bound to get all kinds of stomach troubles. Dan’s been suffering from cookie belly all week, so I figured I owed him a real meal for dinner tonight. Omurice seemed like the way to go, since it’s not only yummy and satisfying,...
Back in college, I used to bake stuff for all my friends on their birthdays. Really simple things, mainly — cakes from a box with canned frosting, and giant bag-mix cookie cakes were my specialty. If I was feeling really fancy, I’d bust out puff pastry sheets, slice some strawberries, melt chocolate, and make “fruit tarts”. Sadly, that was about the extent of my baking abilities at the time, so when my friend Spencer told me one day that he wanted madeleines for his birthday, my reaction was something along the lines of “Uhhhhhhh….huh?” First of all, I had no idea what madeleines were, and second of all, once I did figure out what they were, I couldn’t afford to order the proper baking tins. Very...
So, usually I have some kind of back story or anecdote to explain why I’ve made something, but…I got nothin’ this time, y’all. I just really like Snickerdoodles. They’re practically the perfect cookie — crispy on the outside but chewy on the inside, buttery, coated in cinnamon-sugar, and so light/airy that they almost melt in your mouth. As a certain cookie expert would say: “Om nom nom nom…” I want eat a whole bunch of these ‘doodles everyday, but for the sake of my girlish figure, I won’t. Unfortunately for me, but fortunately for any of friends of mine who also love Snickerdoodles, this recipe makes over 4 dozen cookies, so…if anyone wants some…you know where to find me. Snickerdoodles (Adapted from Martha Stewart’s recipe, via...
I’m guest posting again on Milli’s blog today, and I’ve decided to share my recipe for Chicken Pesto Pizza. When I was working at the courthouse, one of my favorite things to get for lunch at the Judge’s Dining Room was the Chicken Pesto Sandwich. Grilled chicken, thick slices of fresh mozzarella and spinach sandwiched in a toasted ciabatta roll slathered with homemade pesto. Mmmmm. This pizza version is just as delicious, and even easier to eat. It’s a good thing I have so much pizza dough and pesto sitting in my fridge right now, cuz I know what I’m going to be eating for lunch everyday next week… For my full post with pictures + recipe, head over to the myChef blog.
