A Girl's Gotta Eat!

The weather has finally turn (barely) cooler, and while many have their knickers in twist over all thing pumpkin, I'm all about the apple. In light of a soggy, wet weekend, we decided to try a new cocktail to welcome the new fall season. It was simple, delicious, and refreshing, requiring minimum ingredients. Spiked Apple Cider (compliments of Aaron McCargo Jr.) 1/4 gallon apple cider 1/2 cup dark rum 1/2 cup cinnamon schnapps Mix together in a pitcher or large bowl. Chill until ready to serve. Serve in glasses over ice. Garnish with chopped apple on a skewer. Happy Fall, Y'all!

Last week I tried a new recipe from my Cooking Light cookbook that I was extremely excited about and had very high hopes for: Chicken with Rosemary Sauce. I had everything on hand except the chicken, so I picked that up Thursday and decided to try it out for Friday's feast. The recipe was easy, healthy, and didn't call for too make ingredients, a seemingly perfect combo. But when all was said and done, and it was time to sit down and eat, it left me … unsatisfied. The flavors worked well enough, and the chicken was moist and all, but it just didn't live up to the expectations I had set for myself. So then I faced a dilemma: throw away perfectly fine leftovers, which is wasteful and ridiculous, or eat them, wishing all the while that I was eating something else. After a couple days of putting off the inevitable, it struck me. I could use the original recipe, jazz it up with my own flair, and have a delicious meal (hopefully) that was satisfying and avoided w...

Hello again! This is a short one, but I wanted to share now while I was think of it. Mike and I occasionally like to try a new cocktail or beverage.    When were out to dinner with my parents last week for their anniversary dinner (Happy 44 Years, Mom and Dad!), I noticed a Spiced Pear Martini on the menu at Olive Garden. I didn't get one for dinner, but the idea of stuck in my head. I Googled "Spiced Pear Martini" later, and I found a recipe that seemed tasty and easy to whip up.    I would say it tastes more like Christmas cookies than pear, but it's still delicious and very holiday-inspiring. The original recipe places one maraschino cherry at the bottom of the martini glass, but we omitted that as maraschinos are not something we keep on hand, nor would we finish a jar bought for this purpose.   We would make this again, though I think I might look for pear vodka (which I feel certain I've seen before) to see if the outcome would be mo...

Today was a triple threat in the Nash house: a Boston game was on TV, Titans are playing tonight, and Mike had his annual Fantasy Football draft. Even better, baseball started at 3pm, and Titans are playing a night game. (There was a brief disagreement about what to watch live and what to record when we thought they both played night games.) Anyway, after a very tasty breakfast of bacon and eggs, we decided to rock snacks/appetizers for dinner tonight. We had homemade salsa, homemade black bean hummus, and needed one more thing to round out the "meal." Once again, Food Network Magazine and one of their "50 things" booklets came through for us. Horseradish Kielbasa bites sounded perfect! The recipe is so easy, I'm not even going to list it all formally at the bottom like I usually do. Make a sauce with the following: 1/4 cup sour cream, 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley, 2 tablespoons whole grain mustard, and 2 teaspoons horseradish. I didn't meas...

  Have you ever come across a recipe in a book or magazine, or perhaps an idea on Pinterest, that once you see it, you think, "Duh! This is brilliant and easy. Why didn't I ever think of it?"   Several months ago, Mike and I had such an experience when we saw a recipe in our Food Network Magazine for, wait for it....Tomato Orzo Soup with Grilled Cheese Croutons .   Seriously? How many of us grew up eating Campbell's tomato soup alongside a grilled cheese sandwich, dipping the sandwich into the bowl or mug of hot orangish liquid?   ( Side note: growing up, my mom called the soup "orange soup" for YEARS, as none of my siblings nor myself liked tomatoes. I guess none of us ever looked at the label or noticed that it had a distinctly non-tomato flavor. A fond memory nonetheless.)   Anyway...we knew we had to try this. I'm happy to say it was fantastic! While it may be tempting to push the "easy button" and open up that fail-sa...

So this post isn't a recipe, but a kitchen gadget recommendation. For Christmas, Mike bought me my very first cast-iron skillet. How in the world have I been cooking all these years without this?? One of my fondest memories takes place during a visit at my late Great Grandma Lela's house. Grandma Lela always sent us handmade ornaments every year for Christmas (and every year they were different), made each of Christmas stockings (which we still use at my parents' house), and was always so much fun to be around the few times we made it out to see her.   On this particular visit, she offered to make dinner for us—cheeseburgers. Never one to pass up a tasty burger, even in my younger days, I was ready for her to fire up a grill and get to cooking them. Instead, she pulled out a very seasoned, very loved cast-iron skillet. Nevermind that...a burger is a burger, right?   Wrong. They were delicious, juicy, one of the tastiest things I remember eating even to this day ami...

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, 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 ...

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...

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...

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,...

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. (...

It’s the time of year again for Christmas parties and company potlucks. Our company Christmas luncheon was today. After seeing plenty of people signed up for vegetables and desserts, I decided to bring macaroni and cheese. After all, you can’t have ham without it! The glitch to bringing this dish, however was two-fold. 1) Mike and I have had a lot going on with finals, visiting with friends, and our new German Shepherd pup, Leopold, so I needed to make something quick and easy; and 2) warming up large portions of food in our work microwaves is tedious and frustrating. Cooking something in a slow-cooker solved both these problems in one fell swoop. I was pleasantly surprised. It was very easy to whip up, and I thought it was very tasty. The sauce would have been a bit creamier if I had served it 30 minutes earlier, but it was still very good. And had I been at home cooking it, I could have simply stirred in some extra milk or margarine.  Before Cooking  The original recipe cooks ...

Mike and I first tried this dish long before I ever thought about doing a food blog. When I realized I had not yet shared it on my blog, I decided we just had to make it again, if not for ourselves, for those out in the world who had never tried such tastiness. We originally found the recipe in an issue of EveryDay with Rachael Ray, and have left a sticky note on the page so we always have quick-and-easy access to it. When Wednesday rolled around this week, Mike was supposed to have his flag football tournament. The weather had another idea, and after raining for about 36 hours straight, they decided to postpone for a drier time. Because of this, I needed some easy to shop for and make (I don’t normally cook on football nights), and I wanted something warm and comforting after have a very soggy couple of days.   We do everything by the book on this one, although we rarely use the amount of horseradish called for in the recipe, opting instead to add plenty of extra. And coo...

In an effort to raise money for United Way, my company decided to have a bake sale and cake/pie auction two days ago. As we had family arriving in town that night, and Mike had a flag football game, I opted to help out by baking a pie for the auction instead of needing to bag up individual servings for the bake sale. I found a recipe that looked tasty, but relatively easy, with high ratings on food.com . My only hope was that it would raise at least $15 in the auction... Despite the fact that I misread the recipe and ended up staying up way past my bedtime to get it finished, it was, indeed, quite easy to put together. Even better, I'm happy to report it raised $40 in the auction! Eager to try it for myself, I made another this morning to take to my parents' house for family to try. All-in-all, I would say it got pretty good reviews. I did cheat and use a store-bought pie pastry, but we can't all be Betty Crocker...My brother-in-law who is in love with my normal apple p...

No clever story to this one. We just saw the recipe on the cover of our Food Network Magazine and really wanted to try it. It was easy, tasty, and something we'll definitely be making again. Don't skip the croutons on top; they add a ton of flavor! Broccoli-Cheddar Soup 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil 1 onion, finely chopped 2 ribs celery, finely chopped 2 cups low-sodium chicken broth 2 cups half-and-half 1 pound russet potatoes, peeled and chopped 1 pound sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped 1 bay leaf Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper 2 cups chopped broccoli florets 1/3 pound sharp Cheddar cheese, shredded (about 1 1/3 cups) Croutons for topping Heat the olive oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Add the onion and celery and cook for 5 minutes or until softened, stirring frequently. Add the chicken broth, half-and-half, both potatoes, bay leaf, 2 cups water, 1 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium-l...

I meant to post this one two weeks ago, so I'll keep it short. Mike had drill, and he had been hungry for "regular spaghetti." I decided to take it up a notch and create homemade marinara and meatballs. I wanted a recipe for marinara that was reliable, but easy. We have a cookbook from Mario Batali that came in handy. The following recipe was super-easy and super-tasty. I don't know that we'll buy marinara again. I'm not a fan of big tomato chunks, so I used my immersion blender to smooth out the chunky bits. It's really up to your personal taste, though. I doubled the recipe, mostly due to the fact that I love really saucy pasta. It was fantastic having leftovers. The sauce especially turned out extremely scrumptious, and the original recipe specifies that you can freeze the sauce for up to 6 months. We didn't have any to freeze after a week, but it's duly noted. :) I didn't use a recipe for the meatballs, but I used 1 pound of lean ground...