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…
-
Continue ReadingHappy post-labor day weekend! This past weekend was filled with so much stuff, I’ll be writing about it for weeks! Here’s a taste: brewery, wine tasting, jazz festival, escape room, hot pot restaurant, renaissance fair, and a ton of board games! Plus my birthday is coming up this week, so you’d better keep checking back for posts if you wanna hear all the details. This recipe I made for my sister’s boyfriend R since he just about loooooooves peanut butter. Also chocolate + peanut butter, but I don’t think he’s discriminatory. So I always pin all these peanut butter recipes…
-
Continue Reading
Happy Labor Day! Did you think I was gonna leave you hanging? Nope, this time I’m posting a down and dirty meal that you can enjoy when you’re crunched for time, and kids are sure to love because there are tater tots! This recipe I learned from one of my coworkers–from Minnesota! We were really confused at lunch one day as to what he was eating, and apparently this is a pretty common staple up there where as I (being a Yankee originally) had never in my life heard of it. So that prompted a discussion of what is tater…
-
Continue Reading
This weekend we had another game night: read D&D session, because we’re cool. =D It’s been a couple months since our last one, because summer always seems to get crazy busy for everyone and we have to find a weekend where all 5 of us are in town and not busy. But at least for you that means–more recipes! We’ve started doing a pot luck so everyone contributes, but since I like cooking I’ll usually make one or two things that I’ve been meaning to try out. Other recipes I’ve made before include mediterranean dip, or caramelized bacon onion dip ,…
-
Continue Reading
Bonus post: here’s another gourmet burger to add to your repertoire! Keep this one in mind alongside jalapeno cheddar stuffed burgers, or the juicy lucy burger. With these three burgers on your menu, you’re sure to impress! This is definitely a different twist on a classic burger, but really the main difference is the ground lamb. Everything else I typically have in my pantry. Make sure that you don’t over-mix the lamb, because you won’t want it to be tough. We served this with garlic butter roasted carrots and actually used what was left of the garlic butter in the…
-
Continue Reading
Your one-stop-shop for yummy cookies with that splash of gourmet! Check out pudding sprinkle cookies and cake batter chocolate chip cookies for some other gourmet takes! These maple sugar cookies came out fabulous, with no more than a hint of maple, though you could definitely taste it, which is perfect for me. Sometimes if not done properly, I find maple syrup cloyingly sweet. Do make sure you’re using that real stuff instead of the stuff that is basically corn syrup with some brown tint. Because it is used as the flavoring in this recipe, you won’t really get that maple flavor unless you use good…
-
Continue Reading
Let 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…
-
Continue Reading
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…
-
Continue Reading
From the lady that made jalapeno popper stuffed bread before she made traditional jalapeno poppers, I give you baked jalapeno poppers! As I’ve said, you can thank my lack of spice tolerance for this delay. Somehow a dip that’s made much more of cream cheese and cheese and other goodies seemed less intense than jumping in full to jalapeno poppers. Plus the last batch I had were made by a lady who thought we all loved spice, and were a looooot too intense for me. Delicious, but mouth-on-fire delicious, and hence I had somewhat avoided these. Which is silly really, because when you’re…
-
Continue Reading
Up front: this recipe has nothing to do with me! It came completely and utterly from T, and I’m not actually sure if he pulled the idea off the intermanets, or came up with this tasty concoction on his own! My role in making this was twofold: 1) make the garlic mayo, and 2) grate the cheese. That’s it! My boy doeeees know how to take care of me in the food department. He even made a take on roasted caesar broccoli swapping out the caesar dressing for Italian dressing! T’s parents would be impressed–thinking about vegetables all by himself! And everything turned…
-
Continue Reading
I am definitely becoming the queen of convenience! Okay, not really, because this recipe isn’t exactly as simple as some of my five-ingredient recipes like bbq baby back ribs, but I’ve definitely been reaching for the recipes with a convenience factor (read: cream of potato soup, for this one). Here’s the same plug from my last recipe, spicy cream tomato sauce pasta which uses jarred tomato sauce: convenience isn’t a bad thing. In an ideal world, I’d love to make everything from scratch or nearly scratch (you probably won’t catch me boiling up some seafood to make seafood stock either way). But I’m…
-
Continue Reading
Before I start off this post, I want to note that I am going to *TRY* to be better about posting more regularly. This has stemmed from the idea that I have a backlog of favorite restaurants that I want to make posts about, but also since I’ve been crazy busy at work for the last week or so, and feel like I’ve been lagging a bit in my recipes. This will be a loose schedule, because sometimes I make things and get excited and want to share them right away! But my hope is to post: (1) Recipe Sun-Mon,…
