Here’s a great party recipe! The best part is that the veggies can be swapped out with whatever you have lying in the fridge. I ended up using celery and carrots, though I’m sure you could add in peppers, jalapenos, broccoli, spinach…anything you want! And the other ingredients take a number at 4. Amazing isn’t it? You of course can chop all of these vegetables by hand, but I highly recommend and food processor or chopper. I love this 1.5 c food chopper and it makes short work of vegetables! It’s cheap, safe, and reliable, and easy to clean and pack up. Especially…
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Continue ReadingSo I was supposed to have volleyball tonight. But lucky for you all, instead you get another recipe because it’s snowing and surprisingly dangerous for the less than 2″ of snow on the ground. But it’s that wet, slippery kind. I turned around before even going a mile to one of the major roads, and I passed at least 6 cars pulled over on the side of the road, and two in an accident right outside the complex. Jeez. And I don’t have an all-wheel drive vehicle, I have a sedan, but I also grew up in the Northeast and feel…
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Here’s a perfect family-pleaser recipe! I call it that because it’s a familiar and tasty option, spiced up with a little gourmet twist, but not with ridiculous ingredients. Chicken tenders, done the normal way, except instead of breadcrumbs, crushed pretzels for extra crunch, and throw in some honey mustard in the eggwash. That’s really all there is! I like this recipe because you get a little extra crunch for a touch of extra work. I don’t know if anyone else has this problem but I hate “crushing” things. Everyone makes it sound so easy–just crush the pretzels, like it’s that…
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So I’m feeling under the weather right now, and after a crazy New Year’s Eve, I’m ready for some easy-peasy slow cooker recipes. So I turned to this slowcooker french dip sandwich recipe from the magical slow cooker! I adapted ever so slightly, using what I had on hand–lipton french onion soup mix. Now you’ll notice that even while I mention salt and pepper in the ingredient list, I don’t actually mention in the instructions to use salt. This is just a personal preference. I like how easy the french onion soup mix makes this recipe, but I do think it’s got…
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So for this tart, because it was New Year’s Eve, I cracked out the cute confetti sprinkles! I think it ended up pretty cute. One of the best things about this recipe is that you can top it with anything. The original recipe, adapted from Ella’s Home Cooking Adventure No-bake Strawberry Chocolate Tart recipe, uses strawberries and chopped nuts. I’ve used caramel pieces as topping before, but you could use sprinkles, or any kind of fruit, candied orange peels, chocolate, maraschino cherries, cookie crumbles, crushed nuts…all sorts of goodness. I used raspberries on this one because I wanted something a little different…
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The mimosa bar for our New Year’s Eve Countdown Bash came out super cute! I decided that four was the perfect number: four fruits, four juices, four champagnes! Champagne Now we decided to use Andre as the champagne. It’s not classy, but if you’re going to mix with super sweet juices and mix the champagne, no need for the good stuff. We did reserve a bottle of “good stuff” for the actual midnight toast though! For champagne varietals, we had: (1) Brut, (2) Extra Dry, (3) Spumante, and (4) Blush. We also had some sparkling cider which is a perfect non-alcoholic varietal!…
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So today was a flurry of shopping, baking, and cooking! I’m exhausted but excited. It was lucky that I took the day off from work so I had enough time to do everything that needed to be done for our kick-ass New Year’s Eve Party! We pulled out all the stops. I’ve got a whole trivia game about 2015 ready, set with prizes; I made some props for us to use in a makeshift “photobooth” (more like a golden photo corner); and of course, the drinks — a mimosa bar! I’m super excited about it all but especially the mimosa…
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So you might have noticed something: I like using egg roll and wonton wrappers for things other than Asian foods. My mom did teach me how to make wontons growing up so you’ll have to look out for when I actually post that recipe! But in the meantime … the recent crazy weeks I’ve had have forced me to get creative as I attempt to use up as many of the random ingredients I have lying around in my fridge. So, voila, philly cheesesteak egg rolls! These goodies are exactly what they sound like — thinly sliced steak with onions…
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So let’s go with: I’m going to whip these out again one day and impress someone. They look amazing. They taste even more amazing. And you can pretend that they’re healthy (they’re not). I did forget to add that extra drizzle of caramel, but you know, that’s how these things go. I used McIntosh apples because that’s what I had lying around the house, and I wasn’t able to make the nice rings that the gunny sack described. Because my apples were softer, I just cut out from the center instead, making sure not to cut through the base.…
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This past week was a struggle. Actually, all (two) weeks since Thanksgiving. Even with the Hello Fresh meals eliminating some meal planning and grocery shopping, I’ve felt like a crazy person. Just this past weekend there was our company holiday party, a LAN party with the guys at work, a visit to a Shiba inu adoption event, brunch with friends, and an entire day driving to and advising for my sorority. While all those things were fun, needless to say, it’s been a little crazy. I could have used a weekend break from the weekend! I remember when I was…
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So we made individual garlic monkey breads as a quick side to caesar chicken tortellini the other other night! They were quite tasty, and simple to boot, considering I pretty much always have some biscuit dough floating around in my refrigerator. At the grocery store I had only been focused on picking up ingredients for the tortellini, so side dishes didn’t really cross my mind. But I got home and was thinking, you know what goes great with caesar salad and tortellini? Garlic bread! But alas, no fresh crusty bread, so what’s a girl to do to get her garlic…
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So a friend sent me a Hello Fresh discount code for 1/2 off a week’s delivery and I forgot about it for months until I got a reminder e-mail from Hello Fresh (guess those reminder e-mails do work!). And it was almost Thanksgiving, so I figured I’d have an order delivered the week following; that way I wouldn’t have to go grocery shopping when I got home after traveling for the holiday. I’ve only made one recipe so far and here’s my conclusion on Hello Fresh: it’s convenient, but I see no need to have a weekly or even a…
