A Girl's Gotta Eat!

Man…have I been slacking off, or what? Despite my lack of posts here, I have not quit cooking. On the contrary, I have tons of food pics stored up in my phone—so many, in fact, that the storage is almost full. I decided I better get some posted to make room for others. To look at my previous posts, you might be thinking to yourself that I never have kitchen mishaps, or downright disasters. Ha! I have burned dinner (just once, but still). I have overcooked a birthday cake for Mike to the point that it was totally inedible. And, I have made this pie. I really had high hopes for it…peach pie with a sunflower crust just sounded so tasty to me. I like peaches, pie, sunflowers…it seemed like a match made in heaven. I had a little trouble finding any of the specialty flours, so used whole wheat flour. I carefully followed the recipe to the letter, and yet…this just wasn’t all that great. It definitely has potential, and I would still encourage you to try it, but it just didn’t do...

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...

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,...

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...

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I read a recipe a while back for Summer Squash Pasta Soup (it's another from Seasoned to Taste by the JL Chattanooga.) I thought it sounded delicious, but I don't like making soup during the hot months, and good summer squash is sometimes hard to come by in the colder months. I have a solution. In our past couple CSA boxes from Delvin Farms , we've been getting more pattypan squash than we could stuff and eat. Technically the recipe calls for yellow crookneck squash, but I decided this would be an acceptable substitute and put some tasty looking squash to good use. Also, Mom and Dad haven't been able to eat all their pattypan, so I decided to make a double batch and invite them over for supper. Mike decreed the result as his new favorite soup, and the rest of us thought pretty highly of it as well. I didn't have fresh thyme on hand, but thought dried worked fine. If you don't have or prefer not to cook with wine, I'm sure you could use additional brot...

I’ve wanted to try this one for a while, and with the arrival of the first tomatoes in our CSA yesterday, decided today is the perfect time! (Also, Mike’s mom is coming over for dinner, and she doesn’t mind when I try out new recipes on her.) Remember the Amaretto Fruit Salad I made for Easter? This pasta is from the same book, Seasoned to Taste . I told you it was good one and that you’d see more recipes from it…I’d hate to not deliver on a promise. With tomatoes in the farm box, basil growing one our deck, and pasta always in our pantry, all I really had to pick up was the Brie. I didn’t want to be eating too late, so I chopped the tomatoes the night before, put them in a medium bowl so everything else could be added tonight, and stored them in the fridge overnight. I thought about chopping the basil early as well, but didn’t want to run the risk of it bruising overnight. We made everything as directed, with the exception of adding a bit of extra garlic. We have a ton of it from o...

Check out the link on the right to save 40% on Classic Cookbooks at  Cookbook Marketplace  through the end of May. This is a great time to stock up!

I realize that Mardi Gras was weeks ago, but I’ve been in the mood for some Cajun cooking (I’m reading a Louisiana cookbook at work). I decided to branch out and try something new and homemade (as opposed to opening a box of Zatarain’s, which is admittedly quite tasty, but not the same.) We were meant to have a softball game Tuesday, but after 2 days of solid rain, the game was cancelled, so I invited my parents over as guinea pigs and made some Jambalaya. I would say the only drawback to the recipe is the fact that it has to bake for 1½ hours, which will not be so great during the summer months when I’m trying to keep the house cool. I’m going to work on figuring out a way to “bake” it in a disposable pan on the grill to work around that. I’ll keep you posted on if/how that works out, because we will definitely be making this again. There are several variations the recipe suggests, but I have listed the recipe how I made it. Instead of the chicken thighs, you may also use 1 whole c...

Like many of you, today we celebrated Easter, the resurrection of Jesus. And, of course, no celebration is complete without friends, family, and food (not necessarily in that order). My contribution this year is Amaretto Fruit Salad, found in the Junior League of Chattanooga's latest cookbook, Seasoned to Taste . I love this cookbook (each chapter is a different season: Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter) and cannot wait to try many other recipes from it, but one thing at a time. We made this recipe as listed, leaving off the garnish because we didn't have any mint on hand. Let me add that I never thought I liked pineapple. I thought it was stringy, and I am definitely a texture person when it comes to choosing what foods I like. This time, we opted for buying a whole pineapple instead of one that was already cored and peeled. It was almost $2 cheaper, and prepping it myself wasn't that difficult. Mike also convinced me to try just one piece. I did, reluctantly, and di...

Congrats, Heather! If you will e-mail me your latest address, I'll get your book in the mail shortly. To those who didn't win this time, stay tuned. I will continue to have little contests and giveaways as I'm able. Keep the great comments coming!

Greetings, all! I don't have a new recipe for you tonight, but I wanted to get one more post up before the drawing for a FREE cookbook tomorrow. Instead, I'm coming to you for inspiration. What recipe have you been wanting to try, but just haven't gotten around to yet? Maybe you've been too busy. Maybe its ingredient list is a mile long and you're just a bit intimidated. Whatever the reason...post your idea in my comments section below, and I'll choose one or two to try in the coming weeks. I look forward to hearing from you!

A few days ago, I posted a recipe for a super-simple, super-scrumptious Butternut Squash Soup. Unaware of how many squash to buy for that particular dish, I bought 2 and ended up needing only 1. And so, here is Butternut Squash Soup, take 2. I know, I could make myriad other recipes with my squash, but it’s cold and rainy, and who doesn’t love soup on a cold and rainy day? This time I went for a more “gourmet” soup, Creamy Butternut Squash and Ginger-Apple Soup from ** Starfish Café: Changing Lives One Recipe at a Time . The basics are the same: Sauté some onion in butter. Add squash and broth, and purée everything when tender. The “gourmet” part of this comes in the addition of apples, cinnamon, nutmeg, saffron, and yogurt. Yummy indeed. Now, before you rush out to buy the ingredients and notice that saffron is crazy expensive, let me tell you something—saffron is crazy expensive. Don’t feel like you have to add it. Many recipes I read encourage using turmeric in place of saffron (...

No new recipe today, folks (that will come tomorrow). Instead, I'm introducing a month-long "game," if you will. Here's the deal: 1. During the month of February, be sure to not only visit my blog, but to also post comments on my blog posts. 2. For every comment you make on my blog, you will have an entry in a drawing I'm holding. 3. On March 1st, I will choose one name from the hat. The winner will receive a free copy of Recipes Worth Sharing , a fantastic cookbook valued at $24.95 that I use often (remember the shrimp and grits I made?). That's all you have to do. The more comments you make, the more chances you have at winning. I will limit it to one Comment per blog post so we don't have people posting one word at a time or something equally crazy. Please use your best judgement. I hope you're as excited about this as I am. After all, who doesn't love FREE stuff?!

In our latest issue of Food Network Magazine, Mike and I found (among many other recipes) a recipe for Grapefruit and Mint Salad that we had to try. It looked really easy, and we had just seen beautiful, ripe, Ruby Red grapefruit at Kroger. Realizing that a grapefruit salad would not be nearly enough for a full meal, we decided to keep it healthy and make some sort of fish/seafood. I had originally planned to try a new grouper recipe, but once I was back shopping at Kroger, I came across two dilemmas. 1) It is difficult to find grouper in landlocked Tennessee (only frozen was available); and 2) There was Coho salmon on sale that looked divine. I made a game-time decision and went for the salmon, buying one fillet for dinner tonight and one for salmon bisque in a couple days. I wanted to try a “new” kind of salmon, so went for Asian-Spiced Salmon, which I found in Fiesta Seafood Kitchen: A Taste of Pensacola , a book filled with nothing but seafood recipes. It seemed easy, but full ...

Cookbook Marketplace (a source for many of my favorite cookbooks) is offering 50% off all titles from now until the end of the year! I've already mentioned several titles here in previous posts that you should definitely check out (Holly Clegg, Betty Sims), and I'm happy to offer any assistance in looking at other titles if you have questions (I love Tables of Content from Birmingham). This is a great time to stock your own shelf as well as pick up some great gifts! I'm already adding titles to my wishlist...