A Girl's Gotta Eat!

8 years ago today, I married my best friend. To celebrate, we tried a new-to-us restaurant, Claim Jumper, where I got an oh-so-different but tasty Korean BBQ Chicken Pizza. Delish!

I could have sworn I posted this recipe when I first started my blog, but it seems that it somehow fell through the cracks. I first made it when I needed to use some fresh peaches before they went bad, and Mike was in the mood for a cobbler, All the recipes I was finding used milk, which I currently did not have handy. Instead, I found this Simple Blackberry Cobbler Recipe from Tables of Content . Excellent…no milk required! And even though the title says blackberries, the cookbook has a note that states the cobbler is also excellent with blueberries, raspberries, or peaches. This is now my favorite, go-to cobbler recipe. I’ve only ever made it with peaches, but imagine it would be good with blackberries (like the original recipe calls for), or even a combo of the two fruits. I don’t seem to have a photo of this particular dessert, so I guess I’ll just have to make it again so I have proof of how delicious it looks. It’s best enjoyed warm, but not super hot, with a small scoop...

In our most recent CSA box, we received a very nice-looking seedless watermelon. Most people would probably be thrilled with it, but I’ve never been a huge watermelon fan (unless it’s yellow watermelon, which I can eat like it’s going out of style.) Thankfully, Delvin Farms always sends an e-mail with recipes the night, to help use the fruits and veggies we are expecting. The following is a recipe from them, and quite possible the only way I’ll red watermelon from here on out. A few tips and comments…I used shallots instead of red onion because I don’t like a really strong onion flavor. I didn’t measure the melon, but used about half or a normal-size seedless watermelon and thought it was about perfect. I was also hesitant about saving the leftovers, as I was worried that the melon would get soggy sitting in the dressing overnight. I ate and shared the remainder the next day for lunch and still thought it was very tasty. I think it would be great for a picnic or get together ...

I know at some point you are going to get tired of me using the same cookbook over and over again. But when the recipes are all so tasty and reliable, why venture to an unknown? Here’s another I tried from Salt to Honey . I omitted the golden raisins (because I don’t like them in stuff like this) and the celery (because I didn’t want to buy the entire bunch to use only one stalk), and opted to add extra dried cranberries and almonds instead. The toughest part of the entire recipe was probably chopping the chicken, but that is only because I’m very particular about not wanting any grisly bits or fatty bites. I will say that the dressing portion made more than we wanted to add, so we saved the extra and decided we could maybe use it for something else later. Use your own judgment when adding it, and hold off dumping the entire amount in if you prefer less dressing as well. We were all set to serve the salad in radicchio leaves as suggested, but the radicchio available to us loo...

I know, I've already tried several scones and passed them along to you, but these really are my new favorites. They were easy to mix together (no mixer required), and the end result was moist and flavorful on the inside with just a hint of crunch on the outside. Last weekend, I picked up a large box of peaches at the Nashville Farmers' Market . After noticing this week that they were getting soft faster than I could eat and share them, I decided it was time to whip up a baked treat so they didn't go to waste. There's a peach pie recipe I've been dyng to try, but I was short a few ingredients and so decided to try a new scone recipe after the last ones didn't turn out as expected. I am so very, very glad I made these. The recipe worked exactly as written, and after tasting one fresh from the oven, I immediately decided to whip up a second batch. The original recipe also states that other fruit can be substituted for the peaches, so I plan on keep these ...

It’s that time of year again when the farmers’ market is brimming with tasty treats, and our CSA is full of goodies fresh from the farm. As it was last year, our first couple boxes have been mostly various types of leafy greens and lettuces. The lettuce is always the easiest to fix…nothing beats a super-fresh salad with some grilled chicken or steamed shrimp. Some of the other greens take a bit more imagination. Luckily, Delvin Farms always sends out recipes with their emails of what to expect in the coming week. Last year, Mike and I both had kale for the first time. We tried a couple recipes, but the kale chips were our favorite, and very easy to fix. This year we wanted to try something different, something that preferably didn’t require us to turn on the oven when our A/C was already working overtime to keep up with the 95-degree heat outside (in May!!). We opted for kale bruschetta, and made the crostini in the toaster oven. The recipe was easy to put together. I do thin...

Here’s another quickie that I’m sure you’ll be glad to have on hand. Mike and I still have a fair amount of Alaskan fish in our freezer from Mike’s trip there last year. As we need to be finishing it, we’ve been looking for a variety of recipes to keep dinner interesting as well as tasty. The recipe we most recently used is definitely going to be one of my go-to recipes in the future. It uses ingredients I (almost) always have on hand, it was tasty, and we think relatively healthy. The only thing we didn’t have this time was onion, so I sprinkled the fish fillet with onion powder before spreading the mayonnaise mixture over it. We usually have shallots on hand, which I think would add a little bit of color to an otherwise very monochromatic dish. Speaking of it being monochromatic, while this is some of the tastiest, moistest fish I’ve made in a while, it’s not overly pretty. If you’re making it for guests, think about garnishing it with a sprig of parsley, and/or using red on...

Remember yesterday’s fish leftovers? I was brainstorming as I was driving home from work today, trying to decided how to reheat the fish so it wouldn’t dry out when two words came to mind: Fish Tacos. We already had everything we needed: the fish, salsa verde, queso fresco, and some extra fresh cilantro. I stopped on the way home to grab some corn tortillas and a bag of coleslaw mix, just the dry shredded cabbage/carrot blend without dressing. (I don’t know why, but it just doesn’t seem right to me to have fish or shrimp tacos on flour torillas, which we had at home.) This is how we made ours: First, I set out the cod and salsa verde to start to come to room temperature. Then the coleslaw…I mixed up some mayonnaise, red wine vinegar, onion powder, garlic powder, seasoned salt, and a sprinkle of cumin for the coleslaw dressing. Everything was done to taste, so there’s no recipe I used and really no way to go wrong. We like our coleslaw moistened with dressing, not swimming in it, so ...

Mike has a PT test at work in a couple weeks and has sworn of red meat while he prepares. (I have made no such pledge.) As such, we decided to that some the fish he caught on his trip to Alaska , figuring we could figure out how to cook it for dinner when the time came. As it happened, I saw the  recipe on the Today show's site  in the afternoon of the day we planned on having it for dinner. How convenient! I did discover that we had actually thawed cod instead of halibut, but it was a white fish from Alaska , so we both figured it would work just as well. Because we had a preportioned amount of cod ready to use which was closer to 2 pounds than one, we opted to double the recipe for the salsa verde. There was also a recipe for asparagus to have as a side dish, but we opted for corn on the cob instead since we already had some at home. This was super-easy and pretty quick to whip up…excellent for a weeknight meal. The fish was moist, cooked-through but certainly not overcook...

Let me apologize in advance to any readers who don't live in the Nashville area. I'm about to make you very jealous. This posting isn't about a recipe, but about the Food Truck trend sweeping  Nashville. Several months ago, I had my first experience at the Grilled Cheeserie . I was not disappointed. (I had the Hunka Burning Love in honor of Valentine's Day and Elvis-whole wheat bread filled with homemade bacon peanut butter, brie, and caramelized bananas.) Since then, I have joined Twitter and taken to food stalking the trucks. They rarely come close to my office, so I want to be sure I don't miss it when they do. The above photo is from my lunch by Hoss' Loaded Burgers (hand-formed burgers stuffed with cheese and rosemary Parmesan fries) and Riff's Fine Street Food (rosemary lemonade and sorrel fruit punch). Everything was delicious, and I can't wait until I track down the next set of trucks in my area!

Nothing much to say about this recipe other than it was easy, tasty, and made an excellent weeknight meal. We came across it in our much-used copy of Recipes Worth Sharing while making Shrimp and Grits for my MIL's birthday dinner. It looked tasty, and we have salmon in the freezer from Mike's Alaska trip and most of the other ingredients on hand, so it was perfect! The most "difficult" part was cooking and flaking the salmon, but there are a few things you could do for that. 1) Buy smoked salmon. It's more expensive, but easier to flake and you'll save time cooking it. It will impart a stronger flavor, but I think it would be good in the cream cheese-based sauce. We even talked about smoking our own salmon next time and trying it. I'll post an update when we do. 2) Grill salmon for dinner one night and purposely make enough extra to make this pasta a few days later. It will be cool enough that flaking it will be a breeze, and you save a little time no...

There have been so many recipes in our recent issues of Food Network Magazine that have been calling our name that we've been hard-pressed to choose which one to try first. When we finally narrowed it down, we were quite pleased with the results. We had been looking for a meal that seemed fairly quick and easy to execute and that was relatively good for us. This flank steak seemed hearty, but was listed in the magazine as having less than 400 calories per serving. Even better, flank steak is a relatively inexpensive cut of meat, and this one didn't need hours marinating before we could cook it. This definitely fit the bill. The steak stayed juicy and flavorful since you sear it. We cooked our for the suggested time per side for medium-rare, but as long as you sear it over high heat, cooking it longer for a more well-done steak shouldn't pose a problem. There are two things I would do differently next time. 1) Double the recipe for the beans. We thought they were excepti...

Happy Shrove Tuesday (otherwise known as Fat Tuesday)! As I left for work this morning, I asked Mike to think about what he might want for dinner tonight, and suggested perhaps making pancakes. Growing up, my church often offered a pancake dinner to honor Shrove Tuesday in light of Ash Wednesday and the upcoming season of Lent beginning the next day. As I was looking for possible pancake solutions during my break today, I remembered the 2 bro wning bananas sitting on our counter at home. I was in luck...I found a recipe for none other than Banana Pancakes in the very same book ( Salt to Honey ) that offered the Lemon Raspberry Sherbet I previously blogged about. I had all the ingredients on hand, and it used the bananas that would have otherwise been thrown into a smoothie or made into bread and muffins. Mike also thought banana pancakes sounded good (which was pretty fortunate since I was ravenous for them by the time I arrived home.) The recipe was easy to put together,...

Now that I know how well my ice cream maker works (having made Vanilla Bean Ice Cream and Lemon Raspberry Sherbet), I have a long list of ice cream, sherbet, and sorbet that I can't wait to try. Next on the list was Coconut Ice Cream from the Ben & Jerry's Cookbook the MIL gave me with my new gadget. I used eggs in the sweet cream abse this time, although I cooked the base even though they didn't to avoid any potential issues using raw eggs. To do this, I heated the milk and cream to a low simmer in a saucepan. Whisk the eggs and sugar together in a heatproof bowl. Gradually whisk some of the hot milk into the eggs, then whisk the eggs into the remaining hot milk. Continue to heat over low to medium-low heat until slightly thickened. Proceed as directed. You can skip this and make the recipe as they directed if you're not worried. Be sure to get coconut cream (not coconut milk), which we found with the drink mixers at Walmart/Kroger. Coconut Ice Cream 2 larg...

Many of you know that for the month of January, Mike was in Antarctica for work. What you may not know is that I wanted to surprise him when he got home with the aforementioned Lemon Raspberry Sherbet, found in Salt to Honey , the newest cookbook from the Junior League of Salt Lake City . I’ve been waiting to try this recipe for a while. Like the vanilla ice cream I previously posted, the lack of an exorbitant number of egg yolks appealed to me, as did also the combination of lemon and raspberry—two of Mike’s favorite flavors. The recipe is simple and easy to follow, and oh so tasty. The only thing I would do different next time is either A) spread my raspberries out on a larger pan (not in a baggie) before freezing them to prevent the large chunks I ended up with, or B) cheat and use already frozen raspberries, which I’m sure would work but would not have the same fresh flavor. Lemon Raspberry Sherbet 1⅓ cups sugar 2⅔ cups milk ⅓ cup cream Zest and juice of 2 large lemons 1 tab...

Yum indeed...Weight Watchers friendly cupcakes. I make a friend/co-worker a birthday treat every year, and this year we went with Hungry Girl's Boston Cream Cupcakes . The recipe was easy to follow and doubled well (I didn't want to use only half a box of cake mix), and quite tasty to boot. I do think I could have stuffed more filling into each delicious treat, but I didn't realize that until they were already being enjoyed at the office. For my first attempt at a filled cupcake, though, I was pretty pleased. Everyone else seemed pretty pleased as well, especially the birthday girl (she was really the only one who mattered anyway!) (As a side note, Hungry Girl also has several recipes utilizing won ton wrappers that I want to try.) Boston Cream Cupcakes Ingredients: Half of an 18.25-oz. box (about 1 3/4 cups) moist-style yellow cake mix 1/2 cup fat-free liquid egg substitute (like Egg Beaters Original ) 3 tbsp. chocolate frosting, room temperature 2 tbsp. l...

For Christmas, I received a kitchen gadget that I’ve wanted for a long time, but only recently had a place to store it when not in use—an ice cream maker. I have looked at several over the years, and read many reviews, but decided a while ago that the one for me is the Kitchenaid Ice Cream Maker that attaches to my standing mixer. It requires no ice or rock salt, has the same (or greater) capacity as most other makers, and best of all, can be stored in our freezer chest, ready to make ice cream and sherbet at a moment’s notice. There are a ton a recipes I want to try (my MIL also got me a Ben & Jerry’s ice cream cookbook ), but I decided the bets place to start was with vanilla ice cream. Easy enough, right? Maybe not so much…I found tons of recipes! How would I ever choose? I decided to keep it simple, so went with a recipe I found online that used no eggs, only milk and cream. I got both of these items from the dairy at the NFM , wanting the best quality available to me. (...

I usually think it’s ridiculous when I read a recipe for a sandwich. I mean, come on…it’s a sandwich. How difficult can it be to layer some stuff on bread or in a wrap and eat it? Then I saw the following recipe in our Food Network Magazine , and I became a believer that while sandwiches are still certainly an easy fix for lunch or dinner, sometimes it’s nice to have some inspiration for what to combine between those bread slices. Its preparation may seem more complicated than what you wish to mess with, but trust me that you will be pleased with the result. The most time-consuming part is roasting the sliced butternut squash, but you could do this a day in advance. Or, you can do what I did: choose a squash with a much skinnier neck. You’ll need more slices, but they won’t take as long to bake. I even went a step further and used my toaster oven instead of having to preheat the real oven. One more tip…there are two types of manchego cheese: firm and semi-firm. Firm is more like Par...