That's why the rum's gone
Josh and I took the plunge this past Saturday. No, we didn’t get married. Well, we did but that was three years ago. No, no, this event was almost as important. We bought a new grill. It was definitely time. Our friend Brian helped us drag it home from the store, down the side of I-94…sorry about that traffic backup near Belleville, but we lost one of the wheels and I had to run after and retrieve it.
Just kidding. We put it in Brian’s truck. And drove it back. And we didn’t even take 94.
Anyway, as a thank you to Brian and a celebration of our newest member of the family (what? I take my grilling very seriously), we had Brian and a couple other friends over for burgers and things. Josh decided he wanted more mojito slushies at this particular event and I obliged. Two things made these mojitos even more awesome than the original version. The first was the substitution of pomegranate juice for the lime. My dear friends at Pom Wonderful sent me a free case of pomegranate juice. I love when this happens. Last time, I made pomegranate barbecue sauce, molasses and pomegranate-braised beef. This time, I’m making these mojito slushies and…well, a few other things that will be posted later. Read the rest of this entry »
200th Post! Homemade Snickers Bars
Oh yeah, we’ve hit the big time here. That’s right, this is my 200th post on this blog. 200 entries of deliciousness, tastiness, snarkiness and about 1,322.57 other -nesses that need not be named. I had to prepare something special for this momentous occasion. I decided to make something that covered all the bases: included chocolate and caramel, wasn’t something you’d generally think of making on your own, had a few different steps but wasn’t overly complicated. Snickers bars.
You can think our friend Jeff for this. At some point, Jeff got the bright idea that if he just posted a recipe to my facebook page, I would then make it for him. It was a risky gamble. Actually, not that risky. He was pretty much right. As I’ve proven here. Anyway, he posted a link to this recipe for snickers bars. I was intrigued. I like making my own candy–I mean, so far I’ve done mints, peanut butter cups, chocolate and turtles. But I’d never made nougat before. Or as complicated a candy as a Snickers bar. And I love Snickers bars. I love anything that includes chocolate, caramel and nuts. So I gave it a go. Read the rest of this entry »
Banaberry Streusel Muffins
Where do banaberries come from, you may ask? Well *pats seat* come here and sit down. We should talk.
You see, when a banana and a blueberry love each other very much, they go out on a date. Sometimes drinking is involved and they end up doing some things they don’t remember in the morning, which is probably for the best as it’s most likely somewhat uncomfortable and disgusting. Banana sneaks out in the morning to avoid awkward conversation. And shortly later the fruit of their love is born: the banaberry.
Or…
In coming up with a more succinct name for these muffins I baked yesterday, I shortened the original lengthy moniker of “Banana Blueberry Muffins with Walnut Streusel” by combining the terms “Banana” and “Blueberry” into “Banaberry.” But that’s hardly romantic now, is it?
Anyway, so I was home all day yesterday. It was a planned day off to wait for FedEx to drop off my new iPhone (yes, I’m one of those). What was not planned was that FedEx dropped it off a day early on Tuesday. But hey, I’d already taken the day off. Might as well be productive and bake something delicious.
Three somethings, actually. I made a couple batches of les petits pains au chocolat for Josh, some more cornbread (sans the prosciutto this time) for both of us (but mostly me, really) and a batch of these rather lovely little muffins, which I took to work. Read the rest of this entry »
Are you ready for the coming aporkalypse?
This post is Not Safe For Vegetarians.
I had a delicious dinner last night. “But, Lauren!” you say, “You have a delicious dinner most nights.” And you’re right, you crazy kid, you. But last night was especially delicious. I dunno, maybe it was the Lauren-friendly sunny, hot weather. Maybe it was the light, fresh romaine salad straight from my Needle Lane farm share box. Maybe it was the company of my husband and the relaxed atmosphere of our very old house.
Or maybe it was the pork wrapped pork with the side of pork-filled cornbread.
Oh yeah. You read that right. Pork wrapped pork. Pork filled cornbread.
This whole thing got started because a) Josh’s department was having a picnic-themed potluck and b) I found a recipe for Savory Prosciutto Muffins on EatingWell. I thought, hmmm, what kind of picnicky item can I make for Josh? Muffins. Muffins can be picnicky. Muffins are an anytime food. And these proscuitto muffins sound great. But you know what’s better than regular muffins? Cornbread muffins.
Cornbread. Ain’t nothing wrong with that. Read the rest of this entry »
“They’ve jammed the radar!”
That headline’s a reference to Spaceballs, by the way, if you didn’t recognize it. And if you didn’t recognize it, shame on you. Your penance shall be sitting down immediately and watching this national treasure of a film—while you’re waiting for this jam to cook down, that is.
So I’ll be up front here. I am not a domestic goddess of any sort. I’m barely a domestic imp. I don’t sew–I can, but I don’t and I don’t have any desire to. I clean but not nearly as much as I should. I don’t really decorate. My gardening skills and interests are minimal. I don’t can. (That sentence looks so wrong, by the way.) I don’t bake my own bread. And I know those things seem kind of odd, seeing as how I do cook a great deal and I’ll even make my own candy, chocolate, oreos and now I’m working on Snickers bars. But I dunno. Canning doesn’t really appeal to me and seems like quite a bit of work for an end result that’s not chocolate. But I do like jam, and I like it minimally processed (as I prefer all foods to be, except Taco Bell, which gets an exception because it’s not really food anyway). I don’t like jelly though. I guess you could say that I’m not ready for this jelly. (No? No good? Well they can’t all be winners). But I do love jam, especially stirred into some plain Greek yogurt with some chocolate chips and walnuts—that’s a winning breakfast right there, my friends. Raspberry jam is awesome. But strawberry jam is awesomer still. Because I love strawberries so, so much. It’s my second favorite flavor next to chocolate, and right before “barbecue.” And it’s June! Fresh strawberries abound cheaply. Take advantage of it. Read the rest of this entry »
Farm Share Goodies: Stinging Nettles
Oh yeah, you read that right.
Our farm share started up again–finallly! One of the best days of my year is the day that I can start picking up our produce box from Needle Lane Farms. This year has the added bonus of us being able to pick up our box at the Depot Town Farmer’s Market in Ypsi on Saturdays, which I love, being that I love a 1 minute drive or 10 minute walk from Depot Town. Love. It. Also, I appreciate local organizations giving local love to Ypsi.
So yeah, last Saturday was a banner day. Not only had we just come back from our trip to Alaska, but I was all geared up to make my own food and the arrival of the farm share was the culinary equivalent of choirs of angels heralding the dawn. Well, close anyway. I was prepared for the usual late spring suspects: the garlic scapes, the radishes, the lettuces, the rainbow colored Swiss chard. But once again, Needle Lane blew me away and introduced me to something I had never even considered being a possibility:
stinging nettles. Read the rest of this entry »
Strawberries are just little red mountains
I have been to the mountaintop.
No, really. I just got back this weekend from a cruise to Alaska and I really did stand on top of a mountain. Not a very tall mountain, mind you, and it’s not like I was climbing up it, huffing and puffing with my faithful sherpa, Hodgkiss, a few patient yards ahead of me, doing all the real work. No, I was very comfortably ferried up there by bus, 3300 feet up into one of the most beautiful landscapes anywhere.
So yes, Alaska was fantastic. I was looking forward to it (I wanted to see whales—and did!) and it did not disappoint. I mean, who knew that me, Little Miss Sunshine who is always either in front of a computer or iPhone screen, could enjoy being completely wifi-free in the frozen northwest? Although I will be honest…it wasn’t exactly “frozen.” Well, parts of it were. We did see the Sawyer Glacier and that was pretty frozen, as you can imagine.
But the rest of the time, we were blessed with 70 degree, sunny weather. And the highlight? Part of me (the cheeky part) wants to say that it was seeing a street performer dressed as Darth Vader playing the violin.
It’s been a busy spring. So busy that I’ve fallen behind in my Recipe Experiments. But there’s one thing I never fall behind on:
Glee.
Yes, it’s true. I’m a Gleek. A huge one, too. But I’m not alone. There’s many of us. We are legion. We are loyal. And we love to throw Glee parties and drink mojito slushies. In fact, we had one such occasion this past Tuesday at the house of my fabulous friends, Brian and Rita. We had a potluck dinner, complete with chicken marbella (delicious), quinoa (delicious), homemade bread (delicious), a corn-feta salsa (supremely delicious), more potato and corn chips than is probably healthy, homemade wine, the mojitos (of course) and these zucchini sticks.
Chase signed up to be the taster for this particular recipe experiment and he approves. I’m in fact going to order a stamp that says “Chase Approves” and use it accordingly. Seriously. Well maybe not seriously. But maybe seriously. How much do stamps cost anyway?
This was a Parmesan zucchini recipe that I found originally on Cooking Light and then adapted a bit. It makes a good appetizer, crunchy, delicious, and in there underneath the awesomeness and the bread crumbs is a vegetable. So that counts towards your daily 5. Just FYI. And these are in fact so easy that I just prepared the parts of the recipe at home, brought it all to Brian’s and then assembled and baked them there. About 5 minutes of prep, 20 minutes of baking and that’s all there is to it. Read the rest of this entry »
Well Ain’t That Some Fancy Corn
The children of the corn give this two thumbs up
It’s officially summer here. It’s sunny, it’s 80 degrees at 11am in the morning, my farm share is starting next week (!) and my husband can barely stand to go outside. Yep, officially summer.
Every summer I seem to have a meal that I make on a regular basis, far more than anything else. When I was 15, it was grilled chicken and rice. Like every day of summer vacation. Last year, it was hamburgers. I seem to be coming into my groove when making burgers now. It may sound weird, but ground beef brisket is the way to go, mixed in with a bit of ground pork if you’re of a mind, topped with a good flavorful cheese and onions that have been diced and cooked in butter with some dried herbs, and some guacamole. But this year, this year my summer is apparently going to be embodied by simple evening meals of some good old grilled beef hot dogs and sausages. Simple, quick, tasty, easy…perfect for hot weather, heavy on the sodium but light on my wallet. But sometimes I feel the need to kick things up a notch and instead of slaving over an elaborate main dish, I instead serve the sausages simple and grilled (with some onions and peppers, of course) and pair them up with an awesome side dish instead. Enter the corn. Read the rest of this entry »
Move Over Wonka
Oompa Loompa doopity doo;
I’ve got a little lesson for you.
Oompa Loompa doopity dee;
Reading this post will make you hungry.
What do you get when you put in the mix
a bit of sugar and a whole lot of nibs?
Make your own chocolate in one little batch.
What do you think of that?
I really like the looks of it.
Oompa Loompa doopity da;
You can make your own chocolate bar.
You will live in happiness, too,
like the Oompa Loompa doopity do! Read the rest of this entry »
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