It's Cinco de Mayo everyone! This year I decided to make some chicken and veggie quesadillas with avocado, salsa, and horchata.
Before I start talking about the food I'm going to have a little holiday-related rant, so feel free to skip the text under the cut and move on to the photos.
Happy Easter Everyone! If you're like me, you need to make two carrot cakes for two separate Easter Dinners. This has been my favorite carrot cake recipe for a few years now, it's really moist, flavorful, and the batter comes together really quickly. (Especially if you have a standing mixer.)
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| We ate ours with homemade garlic mashed potatoes and steamed veggies. |
Sorry I don't have any glamorous photos of this one, although I've made this recipe made twice, both times I was over my boyfriend's place. That means no light set up and no real camera. (I really ought to build a second set up and leave it over his place. Maybe I'll do that later this month and post a how to video. Is anyone interested in my lighting set up?)
Like I said earlier, this is a recipe I have made twice now, and it's absolutely delicious.
Happy Saint Patrick's Day everyone!
This is a recipe I have been making since 2009. I originally whipped these up for an Art Students League bake-sale, and they were such a hit that I've been making them every year since. I think I might have been the first person to make Irish Potato themed cupcakes and post them to the web, since I couldn't find any other recipe for these online in 2009, but I could be wrong. Anyway, there seem to be a few variations out there now, but mine is still a bit different.
So, here it (finally) is! My Irish Potato Cupcake Recipe.
We got a few more inches of snow, so I thought it was the perfect time to make some homemade soup.
I looked through my Pinterest recipe board, since I am still trying to make all of the recipes I've pinned, but I wanted to use ingredients I already had on hand. (Why go out and buy more food when I have a full pantry?) I had 2lbs of frozen broccoli and a full bag of shredded cheese (both from Sam's Club), so the most logical soup choice would be broccoli cheddar, and since I am a total Panera fangirl, I just had to try this copycat recipe.
Instead of spending Valentine's Day at a restaurant, or exchanging gifts, I wanted to stay in, make yummy food, and watch Netflix with my boyfriend. I'm a homebody(a nice way to say hermit), and my favorite date nights are the ones where we stay in, spend quality time together, and cook for ourselves.
I may have wanted a low-key kind of night, but I still wanted to make something fancy for dinner. Like most Pinterest users, I have a HUGE board filled with recipes, so I figured the best thing to do was for each of us to pick one for our Valentine's Day dinner.
- He picked the Shrimp Scampi Flat Bread
- I chose these PF Chang's Style Chicken Lettuce Wraps
I hosted my annual cookie swap last week! It's year three and the cookies just keep getting better and better. As usual I made my gingerbread bats (and x-mas trees for those who don't want to explain bats at their Christmas party), and my friends and family each brought their own cookies and recipes.
I'm going to try a little something new this year, by photographing and posting links to all the recipes made this year. I thought this might be an easy way to record each year's recipes, so here we go....
Okay, I fell in love with the pizza dough recipe I reviewed yesterday, so I made another batch. It was just so delicious AND easy! I may have a pizza addiction. (And by “may,” I mean I totally do. And by “problem,” I mean don’t judge me.)
I used the same pizza dough recipe to make the base of these garlic sticks. Lauren, the original recipe writer, also has a cheesy garlic stick recipe, but I kind of made my own so I could use up more stuff I had in the fridge.
Time for another Pinterest recipe! I think I’ll try and do a Pinterest recipe every Sunday so I can slowly work my way through my recipe board.
I have been wanting some warm soft pretzels for a while, and pinned a bunch of recipes for them. I finally decided to make some last night and opted for this recipe which included some yummy buffalo cheese sauce for dipping.
The recipe was very simple and easy to follow. (Especially if you have a standing mixer with a dough hook.) At first glance the steps can be a little intimidating, since you boil the pretzels before baking them in the oven, but really it’s all very easy to do. (The boiling step is very important for the proper texture.)
I’m sick. So what do I want to eat? Soup? Pft, no way! I want chewy chocolate cookies. Since I am sick, and very tired, I want an easy recipe. So I found this one on Pinterest for chewy brownie cookies.
The recipe is VERY easy to follow, and the ingredients are most likely already in your pantry. All you need is flour, brownie mix, oil, water, and 2 eggs. (Chocolate chips are optional, but who are we kidding?
I was able to whip up this batter and have it in the oven within 15 minutes.
I am a french-fry fiend! I always eat all my french-fries before even touching the rest of my food. (Something my boyfriend always teases me about.) I recently acquired a french-fry slicer, so I decided to try this oven baked recipe.
The recipe is very simple, creates almost no mess, and comes out deliciously crunchy. I used parchment paper on my baking sheets so all I had to do was throw away the parchment and I had clean pans! (Which is always awesome.)
I made 2 batches of fries using 7 medium potatoes (with the skin)
- Seasoned with 2tsp Old Bay (on the right in the top photo, and photo #2)
- Seasoned with 2 tsp garlic salt (on the left in the top photo, and photo #3)
Like the original poster, I like my fries crispy, so I followed her instructions and cooked my fries for almost an hour.
The fries that were seasoned with garlic salt were AMAZING. They were very crisp and nicely seasoned. While, the Old Bay fries were very weakly spiced, I’ll have to use more seasoning next time. I like it when my Old Bay fries are really spicy.
Overall this was a great recipe, and it will definitely find it’s way into my dinner side-dish rotation. I can’t wait to make more seasoned french-fries. Any unique suggestions on flavor combos I should try?
© Maria Smith http://poison-and-antidote.net
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