Crepes

Time off in the summer is glorious.  The sun is shining, a pool and the beach are mere moments away, and in my free time I go cooking crazy.  The fact that I haven't posted since last summer is a fair indicator that there is so much going on at my job during the school year, that I just don't take the time to post...let alone cook at all some days.

On one of these lazy summer mornings I got a bee in my bonnet to try something different for breakfast.  According to my New Better Homes and Gardens Cook Book, crepes take just 5 ingredients, all of which I had at my disposal.  Ingredient availability is paramount in this house, so I jumped at the chance to try my hand at crepes.

In all of the cooking shows, crepes are one of those "difficult" dishes that people struggle to pull off, so I fully expected a challenge.  However, the mere quarter page mention of the "Crepes" recipe in the cookbook made me wonder if this had all been a great deception.  Time to bust this crepe mystery wide open!

Chocolate Chip Muffins with Streusel Topping

Breakfast is so boring.  I have friends and family who think breakfast is the bees knees, but I'd rather have two dinners, or maybe a dessert meal than breakfast.  There's just so little variation to breakfast, and because I would rather hit the snooze button an extra two times than take the time to make something elaborate, more often than not my breakfast consists of something I can stick in the toaster and eat in five minutes.  Sometimes on the weekends I get ambitious and try to brighten up the rest of my week by prepping something homemade that will spice up my mornings before work.  Muffins fit this bill.

For all intents and purposes, muffins are basically breakfast cupcakes.  You really can't ever go wrong with cupcakes (especially if they involve chocolate).  The basic "Muffins" recipe in the Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook is an excellent blank canvas for all sorts of breakfast creativity.  Chocolate chips + streusel topping?  Now that's nutrition!

Chipotle Turkey Chili

Chili is an American staple.  There are entire festivals devoted to chili, and it seems that every southwestern household has its own signature recipe.  I've never been a huge chili aficionado, mostly because I'm scared it will burn my mouth off.  However, I read a magazine article a while back about a Halloween game plan involving children and adults gathered around a table enjoying a pot of chili followed by full bellies and trick or treat festivities.  This pretty little picture popped into my head, and I was determined to make it mine.  I found the "Chipotle Turkey Chili" recipe in the Cooking with all things Trader Joe's cookbook by Deana Gunn and Wona Miniati, and found the ingredient list general enough that I should be able to find everything at the regular grocery store.  Time for the chili cookoff to commence!

Vanilla Rabbit Hole Cupcakes

Few words invoke my creative juices quite like, "Will you bring dessert?"  Of course, the answer is always yes.  I begin giddy with excitement, poring over my cookbooks for just the perfect confection for the occasion.  The flip side is that this excitement usually turns to sheer panic as I find myself covered in frosting and short just three more candy canes at the eleventh hour.  Alas, dessert is a labor of love and goodness knows, I'm smitten.

Last month, I took on the challenge of Easter dessert, deciding to put my cake decorating chops to the test with the "Rabbit Hole Cupcakes" featured in Karen Tack & Alan Richardson's Hello, Cupcake! They're cute, whimsical, and I figured I could cut the cost often associated with the very specialized candies needed to make many of these cupcake designs work.  I also chose to bake my own cupcakes from scratch, rather than from the box, using the "Vanilla Cupcakes" recipe from the same cookbook.

Roast Chicken

I'm pretty good at planning side dishes, pasta dishes, appetizers, and desserts, but entrees often escape me.  I'm not a big meat eater, though I definitely appreciate it when done right.  With an impending road trip with the husband, I'm trying to find creative ways to empty out the fridge and eat up our leftovers.  Unfortunately, a lot of it is carb-o-licious and not exactly full-meal material.  In an effort to incorporate more protein into our meals, I decided to prepare one item so versatile that it could compliment any of the dinner leftovers in my fridge: chicken.

I was doing my meal planning from the passenger seat of the car today, so I decided to travel light and take Real Simple's Meals Make Easy: Quick and Delicious Recipes for Every Night of the Week.  Lo and behold, the very first recipe in this book is one for "Roast Chicken and Vegetables."  I left out the vegetables part of this recipe because I was already planning to make "Spring Salad with New Potatoes" from my favorite food blog, smitten kitchen.  You can see how that turned out on the right.

Yankee Doodle Dandy Baked Macaroni and Cheese

Every so often I attempt to continue my quest for the perfect macaroni and cheese.  I say every so often because while I would be happy to partake of the dish every day, I would need to constantly replenish my stretchy pant supply, and that's just expensive.  Based on it's ingredients alone, the "Yankee Doodle Dandy Baked Macaroni and Cheese" recipe from the Macaroni and Cheese cookbook by Marlena Spieler appears quite a contender for mac & cheese perfection.  Will it measure up?  Let's get cheesy and find out!

Italian Egg Sandwich

It's no secret that much of my love of food and cooking comes from the Italian side of my family.  Thinking back on my childhood brings memories of vegetables fresh from the garden, days full of making sausage or deep fried cookies, and countless meals surrounded by family.  That's why when I'm feeling a little homesick, or when I want to taste a bit of my past, I devote the better part of a Sunday to making Giada's marinara sauce.  The result is complex, fresh, and far surpasses anything that you can buy in a jar.  However, in addition to a great deal of tastiness, making a full batch of the sauce presents a delicious dilemma: What on earth do you do with two quarts of sauce?  You can only eat so much spaghetti in a week's time before your husband starts complaining & insists on making burgers or something.  Therefore, I had to start getting creative...or keep reading the cookbook and let Giada do the work for me.  Whatever.

The "Italian Egg Sandwich" from Giada de Laurentiis' Everyday Italian cookbook called for simple ingredients that were already in my fridge and pantry and less than half an hour cooking time.  After hours slaving away on marinara sauce, I'm SOLD!

Lentils and Pasta with Greens

The Classic Rachael Ray 30-Minute Meals cookbook is full of recipes.  There is a recipe in here for pretty much anything you can think of, as long as it doesn't involve baking.  I go through phases of love and apathy with this book - love because of the sheer volume of inspirational ideas and apathy because it's just so much to sort through.  I was in an adventurous mood, so I flipped through the book and found "Lentils and Pasta with Greens."  It sounded nutrient dense and Rachael wouldn't make it if it weren't delicious, right?  I've never had lentils before, but it's a new year and the perfect time to expand my culinary horizons.

Pastrami & Cream Cheese Bagel

When opening this cookbook for the first time, I half expected Gordon Ramsay to start yelling at me.  "Just close the book!  You can't cook anything, you donkey!"  Thankfully, this cookbook shows Gordon's softer side and is chock full of very approachable recipes and advice.  I was excited to see a "Working Lunches" section in this book, especially since winter vacation was winding down.  With the inevitable return to work comes the daily stressful, anxiety-filled, dilemma that leaves me sneaking out the door "forgetting" my lunchbox - what to make for lunch?!  Just thinking about it leaves me in a cold sweat...

Anyone who has watched Kitchen Nightmares knows that Gordon Ramsay appreciates quality ingredients treated simply.  The lunches featured in Gordon Ramsay's Fast Food fit the bill with minimal complicated prep and maximum yummy flavor!  A recent and inexplicable yearning for bagels made Ramsay's "Pastrami & cream cheese bagel" seem simply irresistible.  Time to get toasty!

Classic Yellow Cake with Chocolate Fudge Marshmallow Frosting

I admit it.  I look down on cake mixes.  I always think to myself, I have everything I need in my cupboard to make this mix so I should just make it from scratch.  Despite this grocery aisle snobbiness, the hard truth remains that I don't always have time to make a cake from scratch.  Enter Ann Byrn's The Cake Mix Doctor Returns!  I had a friend's birthday coming up and while I wanted to make a cake, I really wanted to spend more time making the apartment look nice for her than I did slaving over the stove, so I went the time-economical route.  Byrn's description of the "Classic Yellow Cake with Chocolate Fudge Marshmallow Frosting" as the most desired birthday cake in her household made it a natural choice for the upcoming celebration.  Let's dive into the fudginess, shall we?

Meet the new kids on the block!

Thanks to my loving family I am happy to welcome three new cookbooks into the fold: Marcella Says... by Marcella Hazan, Gordon Ramsay's Fast Food, and Cupcakes, Cookies & Pie, Oh, My! by Karen Tack & Alan Richardson.  Yippee!  Expect some new posts forthwith!

Hot Summer's Night in Barcelona Macaroni Salad

My air conditioning hasn't been too dependable lately, so I decided to find something yummy that required minimal heat.  Enter Marlena Spieler's Macaroni & Cheese, which has a great "Soups and Salads" chapter where I spied a recipe that required me to cook just one thing - the macaroni.  Eureka!  With promises of transporting me to Spain, "Hot Summer's Night in Barcelona Macaroni Salad" was a shoe in for my weeknight menu.  I had a bunch of the ingredients already - another big plus.  Let's get not cooking!

Marinated Strawberries over Pound Cake

Yes, I have a favorite cookbook.  How'd you know?  A friend let us borrow a shelf of his fridge while we were moving and we were without a full-sized fridge for nearly two weeks.  To repay him, I offered to make him dinner.  He requested Italian and I immediately knew what book to reach for: Everyday Italian by Giada De Laurentiis.  In my meal planning, I was naturally first concerned with dessert.  I'd just had some lovely strawberries, which inspired me to try "Marinated Strawberries over Pound Cake," basically an Italian take on strawberry shortcake, but better!

Popovers

One of the lovely things about getting married is receiving the advice and words of wisdom passed down from those who have loved and learned before you.  One of my favorite bits of advice came in the form of this cookbook, Williams-Sonoma Bride & Groom Cookbook: Recipes for cooking together by Gayle Pirie & John Clark.  It is part of a set, which also contains a guide to entertaining, for a true amateur such as myself.  The books set the stage for a sharing, harmonious kitchen, if only you would follow their simple directions.  As we all know, marriage is no fairy land and we make do with what we have, but there are some great tips and recipes in here.  I was inspired to make breakfast for my slumbering hubby, and as usual I had failed to plan for something fancy for breakfast, so "Popovers" stood out to me as something that didn't require a ton of technique and had a really short ingredient list.  Best of all, while simple, they're really easy to dress up.

Salsa All'Amatriciana

I enjoy a good tomato sauce as much as the next Italian American, but I don't always have time to simmer marinara for an hour plus (especially if I don't plan ahead on the weekend).  Sometimes, I want my dinner in half an hour.  And sometimes I want bacon.  "Salsa All'Amatriciana" from Giada De Laurentiis' Everyday Italian fits the bill, giving me lots of tomato-y, bacon-y goodness to pile on my pasta without a ton of time in front of the stove, which is always a plus during the height of the summer heat.  Time to sizzle...some bacon!

Pancakes

When I moved into my new apartment, all I wanted was some comfort; something familiar and warm to make me feel at home in unfamiliar surroundings.  Add to that the complication of not much food in the house yet and just a mini-fridge for perishables, options were slim.  Pancakes - good old fashioned pancakes - came to mind as something simple and easy to make.  Not to mention, pancakes always remind me of my mom and cozy weekend mornings with my family.  As always, when I go for the basics, I reach for Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook.  I've probably made these 100 times, but I can never remember the portions.  I do, however, remember the page number of the pancake recipe in this book (p.128 if you're interested...)

Now if you've never made pancakes before, there is a fun yet overly complicated episode of "Good Eats" that will give you more information than you ever need to know.  I prefer to use the knowledge learned peering over the countertop as my mom cooked them, but whatever floats your boat.  On with the yumminess!

Pasta Primavera

In another effort to incorporate more vegetables into my diet, I decided to add them to one of my favorite things, pasta!  When I think pasta, I think of Giada.  Consequently, I pulled out Everyday Italian and selected the "Pasta Primavera."  Here in Southern California our weather is pretty mild and produce is abundant for most of the year, so I figured I could stretch the "spring" reference in this recipe.  Are you ready for some spring in August?  Me too!

Sticky Toffee "Pudding"

I am afraid of baking cakes. I can never seem to get them right.  Usually, they come out too overdone on the outside and underdone inside.  Oven malfunctions?  My inexperience?  I was never totally sure.  Therefore, it was with some trepidation that I cracked open Rose's Heavenly Cakes in search of a recipe to serve at our Redcoat Appreciation Party (before 4th of July, of course).  I'm lucky enough to have traveled to England, and while there I had a fantastic toffee cake dessert, referred to as "pudding".  Upon a brief perusal of Beranbaum's book, I found that the "Sticky Toffee 'Pudding'" recipe fit the bill, so it was time to take a deep breath and preheat the oven.  Here goes nothing!

Grilled Apricot + Feta Salad

Continuing in my quest for the perfect summer side dish comprised of produce, I turned to one of my favorite sources of inspiration, Nadia G and her cookbook, Cookin' For Trouble.  I was intrigued by the color of her "grilled apricot + feta salad" and I've had some fantastic poppy seed dressings like the one in this recipe in the past, so I was excited to give it a try.  I'd also recently seen Bobby Flay grilling some peaches on Food Network and wanted to try my hand at grilling some fruit as well.  Time for some girl on grill action!

Alpine Macaroni and Gruyere with Creme Fraiche

One can never have enough macaroni and cheese.  And by one, I am of course referring to myself.  I enjoyed the "Roasted Green Chile and Tomatillo Mac and Cheese" but did not find the silky creaminess I was hoping for.  I decided to crack open Macaroni & Cheese by Marlena Spieler once again in pursuit of creamy stovetop perfection.  The picture for "Alpine Macaroni and Appenzeller with Creme Fraiche," the first recipe in the book, stopped me immediately (see it on the right). It looks totally creamy and delicious, right?  Like the blue box, only fancy 'cause it has Creme Fraiche in it :)