I find that, because I have a food blog, everyone assumes that I’m always in the mood to cook. They think that it’s all chef-y food, all the time. I wish that was the truth… But, unfortunately, I tend to go through kitchen mood swings. Lately, I’ve been craving some simplicity. When it has come…
Every year around this time I start to regret planting a jalapeño pepper plant in my garden. You see, I seem to have quite the knack for growing jalapeño peppers in my garden. In the spring, I think, “Oh, it will be so great to have fresh jalapeños from the garden!” And, when those first…
I know I’ve mentioned it before, but I just love this time of year. I can’t get enough! One of the things I love most about the fall is the produce that is in season. When you think of fall produce, I’m sure that apples and pumpkins come to mind right away. And, I love…
I love making and canning pickles. But, sometimes I don’t have enough cucumbers for a full batch of my favorite sweet bread and butter pickles. Other times, I just want to experiment with new recipes without having to worry about whether or not the recipe will be safe for canning. Either way, the perfect solution…
For this week’s Works for Me Wednesday post, I thought I’d share one of my best secrets for great tasting foods… Herbs and spices!
That may seem a bit obvious, but I’m often surprised by how little some of my friends and family use herbs and spices in their cooking. Even when they do use a dried herb or a spice to flavor their food, they use so little of it that it hardly makes a difference (granted, there are some flavors where a little goes a long way, and I realize that!).
I realize that for someone who spends as much time in the kitchen as I do, you would expect that I could make rice. I would expect that I could make rice. But here’s the thing… I was a stirrer. I would stir and stir away, adding liquid when the rice would star to seem dry. I would end up with rice that would make a great substitute for wallpaper paste.
Everything changed last week. I decided to make these smokey, slow cooked lentils with chorizo in my slow cooker. I originally thought I would make some sourdough bread to go with the dish, but the Spanish-inspired flavors just begged for rice. I had to (finally) learn how to properly make rice, so I decided to go to the best source I know… Twitter!
Lately I’ve been in a bit of a cooking slump. I can think of lots of things that I’d love to bake, but since I cannot live on cake, cookies, and cupcakes alone (don’t I wish!), I’ve been forced to try to fight through my lack of inspiration and cook anyway.
When I’m feeling uninspired, I tend towards pizzas, frittatas, and soups… They are all of my “blank canvas” foods that lend themselves well to whatever’s in the fridge. I’ve found myself making a lot of them lately… Especially soups. The cooler weather that we’ve been having just begs for soup, if you ask me.
I first started cooking for myself when I was in college and lived in an on-campus townhouse with 3 other roommates. Taco night was always a big hit. We would pick up one of those taco kits – you know the ones, with taco shells, salsa, and a taco seasoning packet. All we had to…
When I’m dreaming up my menu for the week, I will often ask my husband if he has any dinner requests for the week. Last week when I asked, he said “something Mexican with meat.” I think he was thinking of my Beef Enchiladas (pardon the awful picture… that recipe’s on my remake list), which…
I’m on a mission to stop using canned beans. Most canned beans contain BPA, and I’m not too sure about that. While I’m not a scientist, I figure it’s better to avoid it as much as possible instead of taking any chances. Cooking dry beans really isn’t very difficult. Plus, it’s much cheaper to use dried…
