Sometimes keeping it simple is where it's at - in the kitchen and in life. I do enjoy getting fancy in the kitchen using lots of different ingredients, but I also enjoy easy creations and recipes that are delicious simplicity at its finest. Take today's recipe: easy homemade Italian croutons. It's a 5-ingredient recipe that comes together in 15 minutes flat, and it brings great flavor and crunchiness to salads. I've made these croutons a bunch this year, including as part of a brunch that I put together when we had family visiting. I also made these croutons as part of an Italian salad that I brought to Easter festivities, and it was a hit. My older brother, who became a vegan last year, ate this salad and declared that if it was the only thing he could eat out of all of the food, he'd ... [Read More]
easy recipes
Herbed Pomegranate Goat Cheese Crostini
Have you been getting a chance to soak up all of the in-season produce yet this autumn? Lately my cooking and baking has been limited because I moved cross country, and then I was staying in an Airbnb without a legit kitchen for over a month. Plus, I've been pre-occupied with trying to find a new home in Connecticut... BUT I have news to share! After much time and effort spent into looking to buy a place here, my husband and I decided to put our buying plans on hold and to rent a townhouse for 6 months. This move has been incredibly stressful, and sometimes when nothing is going according to plan, you have to recalibrate. We moved into the townhouse last weekend, and I will be spending the next couple of days unpacking and getting settled in... and I am so excited to have all of ... [Read More]
20 Droolworthy Avocado Recipes
If I had to name just one type of produce that I've become obsessed with in adulthood, it's probably avocado. When I moved to California, I quickly found out that avocado is readily available year-round here. We have a steady supply of avocados coming in from Mexico all the time, and then in spring and summer, local California growers offer an abundance of avocados everywhere from regular food stores to local farmers markets and little stands at the most random places on the side of the road. Growing up, I don't remember there being avocado around in my kitchen really at all, and my mom told me a couple of years ago that she had always shied away from them because she heard they were fattening. So, I convinced her that avocados are awesome, delicious, and not all that caloric if ... [Read More]
2-Minute Berry Banana Sorbet
Happy, happy Friday! Any fabulous plans for this weekend? I'm looking forward to my long weekend full of football watching, a hiking date with my hubby, doing some recipe experimentation, a workout with a girlfriend of mine, and a mix of both doing some productive things and relaxing. Today's topic is a never-ending love of mine - fruit. I have a serious obsession with fruit, from apples and banana to cherries and strawberries. In fact, while I enjoy veggies, I have to kind of plan them into my meals mindfully. Otherwise, on the produce front, my diet would consist of all the fruit and none of the veggies. Since I have a huge sweet tooth, I'm always finding ways to make meals that could be dessert, but are also healthy and nutritious enough to be considered a wholesome meal. I'm sneaky ... [Read More]
Old Bay Potato Chips with French Onion Dip
Happy 2014 friends!! Check out my party animal puppy ringing in the New Year.... Just kidding, she's actually quite the party pooper and looked like this by 9 PM: My hubby and I had a super low key New Year's Eve night, which was totally fine with both of us. We ate and drank, played Scrabble, and enjoyed our Christmas decor and tree for one more night before I took it all down today. Since I had the time, I fooled around in the kitchen last night and came up with some yummy eats and drinks.... Today I'm sharing the recipes for homemade Old Bay potato chips and French onion dip. Both are easyyyy peezy to make, and so scrumptious to pick on while kicking ass in playing Scrabble. They don't necessarily have to be paired together, but they make one delicious appetizer combo. Homemade ... [Read More]
My New Favorite Dessert: Wine-Baked Peaches
This week my favorite nearby winery, Clos LaChance, was having a sale on a bunch of their wines. Naturally, I felt the need to stop by the winery yesterday to nab a couple of bottles on my way to the gym. Can't let a sale of yummy local wine pass me by! Besides buying bottles of grenache and pinot noir, I also got a bottle of their sweet late harvest semillon nectar white wine with one thing in mind: dessert last night. I had a couple of ripe peaches hanging out in my fruit basket ready to be eaten, and had the brilliant idea of baking them with some of the nectar wine, sugar, and cinnamon - because I love to sprinkle cinnamon on nearly everything - then pairing them with vanilla frozen yogurt. Oh.my.gosh. It was SO DELICIOUS and such an easy dessert to make. First I sliced the ... [Read More]