Happy birthday to me! That’s right, September 8th is my birthday! And keeping in the tradition of making goodies for people’s birthdays…I couldn’t well leave myself hanging! But since it was raining yesterday and I was too lazy to get some mint extract for mint chocolate chip cookies, I decided to go with what I had on hand and make some funfetti fudge! I actually really like the funfetti cake mix in this because I like the sprinkles that come in it. They’re crunchy and hold up well without being too hard or distracting from the cake-batter flavor! This…
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Continue ReadingLet me just start this off answering the question on everyone’s mind–yes, this recipe is everything you want it to be! Another adventure stemming from my coworkers, though this time from a birthday rather than fresh-from-the-garden produce like baked jalapeño poppers. Since I like cooking and baking (whaaaat), a coworker’s birthday is always the perfect excuse to try out a new recipe! I do ask for a category or a few examples of what they like so that I have a starting place. How bad would everyone feel if I made something the birthday guy/gal didn’t like? That’s awkward for everyone. So…
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Look familiar? I’ll give you a hint: I reviewed a dish quite like this last week from Kona Grill! Here’s my homemade take! The one bite I stole from one of my fellow bridesmaids K at the bachelorette dinner last weekend was so good I was still craving it two days later! So I tried to kinda make something up as I went. This was still quite tasty, and delicious, though of course not exactly the same. Definitely a keeper though! Pesto cream sauce with sausage medallions tossed with some spaghetti or linguine. Hope you enjoy! You’ll notice in this photo…
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Happy Fourth of July! I know you all will probably be spammed by social media with red, white, and blue galore! So here’s some green to mix it up! =D I wanted to share this because it’s an easy recipe to make for company! If you prep the ingredients before cooking and then just add to a pot to simmer away, it works quite nicely. Let me know if you try this method! I am in Chicago for a family vacation until Wednesday, so I wanted to make sure I shared a recipe at least and didn’t leave you all hanging.…
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Cooooookies in bar form! My desire to make this recipe really came from the fact that peanut butter cups were on sale, and I loooove me some fresh PB cups. Have you ever had the really old PB cups that are like dried out and crumbly? It’s not the same. Have you ever had fresh off the Hershey’s press PB cups? I actually have, and they’re AMAZING. The peanut butter is creamier and as sugary as ever, and did I mention–it’s amazing? I did a summer program called Institute of Leadership, Technology, and Management (ILTM) my junior year of college, and got…
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Blue apron is the second order-by-meal service that I’ve used, the first being hello fresh. Feel free to revisit the recipe for dijon walnut salmon and couscous for my list of pros/cons on hello fresh. At some point I will compile a nice list about all the different services, but I’m keeping with the past format for now. Pros As compared to hello fresh, I like the recipes more. They seem a little more exotic, with an occasional ingredient that I wouldn’t have probably picked up otherwise. I relish the opportunity to be nudged out of my comfort zone without being overwhelmed by new…
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Today, T made dinner! Like whole hog, from shopping to marinating to grilling. I mean, to be fair, I guess I made a rice side from a bag, but it was the kind where you just add water and boil. So it doesn’t count, and this meal was suuuuper tasty! Super flavorful, and not too hard. T estimated he spent less than 30 minutes total working on this, though start to finish is a little longer, since you have the marinating time in there. I will say that we did forget to throw in a few extra vegetables. We did only…
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So today was game day! D&D Sunday as they usually happen to be, and instead of going all out to make all of the food, we did a potluck! It was wonderful–worked out perfectly. Zack made jalapeno poppers, Matt made quiche, and Dustin brought brownies! Tyler got away with nothing because he’s dating me, and I provided this awesome mediterranean dip! Plus he’s the DM so he has more work to do than the rest of us when it comes to preparing for D&D. This mediterranean dip recipe stems from Dara’s Healthy Mediterranean 7 Layer Dip over at Cookin’ Canuck, with a…
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Happy cinco de mayo! Well, happy cinco de siete, technically, but who’s counting? I’ve been a busy pup mom this past week, not to mention work’s been a little crazy. But T and I both had rough weeks, so we decided to go all out for cinco de mayo on Thursday, and had some margaritas (henceforth known as ‘margs’), some yummy enchiladas, and some churro cookies for dessert! So you’re in luck, you get: not one, not two, but THREE posts today! I’m feeling generous. And T’s out of town visiting his family for mother’s day, so I only have the pup…
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This recipe is exactly what it sounds like! Pizza dip (though I will say, a little bit more of a white pizza), surrounded by soft and chewy garlic knots! Definitely turn up the garlic on those garlic knots too. Sometimes if I’m feeling extra-garlicky I will add a few pinches of garlic powder and a few pinches of onion powder to the butter mix. My only concern about this recipe is that it’s not quite enough to share with a large party of people. I wanted to make it for a hangout we’re doing this weekend with around 20 people, but with only…
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This was actually the first time that I’ve made risotto on my own! This was my last roommate’s go-to recipe when she wanted to cook, and let me tell you, it’s amazing. It does take a little bit of a time investment, but some of my favorite memories from when we lived together were us chatting in the kitchen over a pot of risotto. We also usually had glasses of wine in our hands. I mean you need wine for the recipe, so obviously the natural extension was to sip on a glass! I definitely recommend that; maybe I should add…
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Granola is one of those things that I thought for the longest time I didn’t like. And then I tried this recipe! It’s a little like crack. When I first made this recipe, I think I made it every week because I went through it so fast–I ate it for breakfast every day. It’s the perfect balance of sweetness and just a touch of salt. It goes with just about everything since it’s really just oats and almonds with a little extra almond enhancer (almond extract). My favorite is actually just plain vanilla yogurt. I keep a jar at my desk…
