Category Archives: Learnist Love

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I said, brrr..it’s cold in here…

I’m resisting the urge to embed videos of Bring It On into this post.  It’s difficult for me, because you know how I feel about pop culture references.  I love them so much.

And also, it really is cold here.  Those of you in warm climates just don’t know my pain.  For the rest of you, I’m just gonna put this here…

And for bonus dipping action!

Learnist Love: All About Thanksgiving

Starting to fret about the upcoming holiday?  Don’t.  This is the internet.  Help is everywhere you look.  I’m particularly fond of all the resources curated over at Learnist.  A search for Thanksgiving brings up everything from the history of the holiday to healthy eating tips to how to keep from pulling your hair out.

Check out all the Learnist Thanksgiving resources here.

Here are a few of my personal boards for getting through Thanksgiving:

Which Knife Do You Need?

If you’re curious about kitchen knives, and which ones to choose and why, keep an eye on this Learnist board I’m developing on that very same subject!  Coming soon: more knife types and tips on care and sharpening.  Knife skills are very important, but even the best cuts need a sharp instrument.

Great Google+ Communities for Food Lovers

There are some great Google+ communities for people who love to grow, make and eat great food.  The problem with some G+ communities, though, is obscene of amounts of blogspam.  Here are a few of my favorite that are actually full of interesting conversation with other people and not just links.

Peanut Chicken Lettuce Wraps

Nuts, and Making the Meals the Universe Wants You To Make

I blame Emily Dingmann.  A day after looking through this interesting Learnist board she’d created on fancy nut butters, my husband brought home, completely on his own, a jar of spicy peanut butter.  Today, I had nothing in the house to make a real dinner with except a package of chicken, some butter lettuce, bell pepper and….that jar of spicy peanut butter.  Clearly, the universe was compelling me to make peanut chicken wraps.  Clearly.

Sadly, I don’t have an actual recipe to share with you.  I can tell you that I heated canola oil and a tablespoon of Chinese 5-spice powder in a pan and then fried died chicken in it, added half a diced onion and one diced bell pepper, and a couple chopped leaves of basil.  Then I added a big scoop of spicy peanut butter, thinned it out a bit with chicken stock until it coated the chicken mixture without being too runny, and served it in lettuce cups with chopped peanuts and some chives from my garden.  That was about it.

Peanut Chicken Lettuce Wraps

Despite what this blog and my Evernote recipe notebook might lead you to believe, most of my cooking doesn’t involve recipes at all.  It just involves me saying, “Hm, what should I eat?”, perusing the refrigerator and cupboards, finding a few ingredients and thinking, “Yeah that seems good” and just sort of throwing things together.  I never think much of it; chances are you do the same thing.  But I do often get questions and exclamations of wonderment from friends and acquaintances who aren’t as comfortable just throwing culinary paint at the wall, as it were.  “How do you know what to put together?  How do you know how much?  How do you know it’ll taste good?”

The answer is, I don’t always, except I sort of do, and it usually works out.  Part of it is knowing what individual ingredients taste like (raw and cooked), which comes with experience; part of it is being able to imagine how they’ll taste together, which comes with experimentation; and part of it is being confident in your instincts, which comes down to trusting yourself a little bit.

Maybe you’ve never considered trying a spicy peanut butter; maybe you’ve never thrown a scoop of peanut butter into a dish with chicken; maybe you’ve never imagined spreading peanut butter on a grilled cheese sandwich, but you should because it’s delicious.

Peanut Chicken Lettuce Wraps

Unless you have a peanut allergy.  I mean, it’s delicious but it’s not worth anaphylactic shock.

I can’t really think of anything that is worth anaphylactic shock, off the top of my head.  Unless you’ve been in the desert for months without the slightest bit of chocolate and some desert mirage offers you an Almond Joy.  Then you eat that sucker.

No, seriously, don’t do that if you have a nut allergy.  I’m just kidding.

Anyway, for the rest of you, if the Universe gives you a nut, use it to make something delicious and new to you.  The Universe wants you to experiment.  It wants you to be happy.  It wants you to make delicious food.

Also, it thinks you should check out the following Learnist boards on peanuts and things you can do with them.

Also, it said you look really cute today, so kudos.

 

Learnist Love: Making Buttermilk Biscuits

You can’t buy happiness but you can make biscuits and that’s possibly even better.  Check out this Learnist board on making buttermilk biscuits from scratch that will rival anything you can make out of a can.

Learnist Love: Holiday Prep

Me: What do you mean, there’s only 12 more days til Christmas?

Calendar: That’s what I’m saying, you have a week and a half.

Me: No, that’s not right.  I have way more time than that.

Calendar: Uhhhh yeah no, you don’t.

Me: Yes I do.

Calendar: Yeah no.  That’s not how time works.

If you’re like me, you’ve probably had similar conversations with your calendar.  Probably quietly.  I mean, if other people heard you talking to your calendar, they might think you were crazy.  And you’re not craz…ier than anyone else.

But just in case you’re starting to feel a bit crazy about the impending holidays, don’t worry.  I’ve been assembling some great boards on Learnist to help you make it through.

Let’s start with gifts.  The best gifts are homemade… 
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