Hey friends :) May turned out to be quite a bit busier than I thought it would, and in a valiant effort to maintain my mental health, my blogging time/effort was rerouted into down time. I even stopped Toggl-ing for a while because I was spending so much time in the wet lab that there wasn't really a point in logging it. But now the sun is shining, the birds are singing, and I am back on the blogosphere.
I thought it would be nice to dive back in with one of my favorite subjects: food. Those that know me, or follow me on Instagram, understand that when I post a photo to social media they can expect to see a picture of something yummy or of my fuzz butts and almost nothing else. Grad school hours can be strange, but I try to make time to cook our meals from scratch as often as I can - this means I spend a lot of my down time meal planning and looking up new recipes to try. One of my favorite places to go for inspiration is YouTube [check out my What Do You Want To Eat This Week? blog post for some of my favorite channels!].
Lately I've been addicted to Bon Appétit magazine's YouTube channel. It's got everything I want in a cooking video: classic recipes turned up a notch, lots of humor, and start to taste demonstrations of the recipes. The It's Alive with Brad series is probably Dan's favorite because of its hilarious editing, but I am a huge fan the From the Test Kitchen videos. Here you get to see some of the Bon Appétit food writers make some of their favorite dishes, from cakes to short ribs to falafel.
A good portion of these recipes come from the BA Best collection [summarized so eloquently on the left]. There's something for everyone here: recipes for cocktails, breads, fancy main courses, and staples from many cuisines. I'm slowly cooking my way through the collection because everything looks too good not to try. |
We really liked the Classic Spinach Salad and the Sausage Meatball Sandwiches - that sandwich made my floormates at work rather jealous every time I brought one in for lunch. I'd like to take another stab at the Fettuccine Alfredo because I bet I could do it better the second time around. I'm thinking Shrimp Scampi might be next on our list because 1) it looks absolutely delicious, and 2) Carla makes me laugh. | |
The BA Best collection inspired me to start actively keeping track of our standby Tested Recipes. These are things I've cooked dozens of times and always come out delicious. I'm still working on making this list easier for sharing with others, but thought y'all might like a couple of good summertime cookout "family" recipes in the meantime (scroll down to colored blocks). I promise I'll keep making edits to my Tested Recipes doc though!
| I love to cook but baking is my true hobby. Our friend Sam got me a few amazing cookbooks for Christmas, including my current favorite Pâtisserie: French Master Class. It's thanks to the lovely people that compiled this book that I can finally make a decent French macaron. The step by step pictures helped a lot, and it turns out I was being way too gentle with these little pretty delicacies, especially if you're using the Italian meringue method. |
I mean, I'm obviously only going to share my two prettiest ones with you, but most of them looked pretty damn good if I must say :) I made a huge batch of cookie batter, then colored it in separate portions for each flavor. The Mexican hot chocolate ganache (not pictured) was our favorite, but each flavor came out pretty spot on.
So I'll wrap up this post for now, but please let me know if you'd like more Recent Recipes posts in the future! I love talking about food almost more than anything else, and would be happy to hear about your stand bys and favorite recipes if you feel generous enough to share with me. Till next time, cheers!
Taco Dip
Special shoutout to my dad for actually writing this one down! <3
Special shoutout to my dad for actually writing this one down! <3
What's needed: Pan for browning meat, oven-safe dish, consumers who don't care about cholesterol levels so much
Ingredients:
Ingredients:
- 1.5 lbs ground meat of choice (beef, chicken, turkey, etc.)
- 1 packet taco seasoning (we use Ortega)
- 1 8 oz jar taco sauce (also Ortega, as spicy as you like)
- 1 16 oz jar your favorite salsa (as spicy as you like)
- 1 8 oz brick of cream cheese (we like Philadelphia brand)
- 1 16 oz container of sour cream
- 2 cups shredded cheddar for topping (freshly grated is best)
- Tortilla chips
- Preheat oven to 400F
- Brown ground meat in sauce pan, drain off excess fat. (Optional - season meat with Goya Adobo All Purpose Seasoning.)
- Mix cooked ground meat with taco seasoning, taco sauce, salsa, cream cheese, and sour cream.
- Pour mixture into oven-safe dish, and cover with a heavy layer of cheddar cheese.
- Bake at 400F until cheese is melted and everything is warmed through.
- Serve with tortilla chips (my dad loves Fritos Scoops with this stuff).
Stuffed Mushrooms
Also featured in my 2017 Fall Break blog post, but totally worth sharing again because even people that don't like mushrooms will enjoy these.
Also featured in my 2017 Fall Break blog post, but totally worth sharing again because even people that don't like mushrooms will enjoy these.
What's needed: cloths for cleaning mushrooms/wringing out spinach, someone you can trick into cleaning mushrooms/wringing out spinach for you, pan/cookie sheet for frying/baking bacon, oven-safe dish
Ingredients:
Ingredients:
- Baby white button or cremini mushrooms
- 2 8 oz bricks of cream cheese (Philadelphia brand preferred, get enough to fill mushrooms - extra filling can also be eaten cold on its own and is delicious)
- 1 box frozen spinach for every 2 bricks of cream cheese (feel free to add more if you like)
- 1 packet Lipton onion soup mix for every 2 bricks of cream cheese (feel free to add more if you like)
- Bacon for topping (exclude if you'd like to make these vegetarian-friendly)
- Preheat oven to 375F.
- Fry or bake bacon (if using) until just cooked - will go into oven later.
- Remove stems from mushrooms [save for veggie stock!], and clean mushroom caps well with dampened cloth.
- Thaw spinach in microwave, then wring out as much moisture as you physically can.
- Combine cream cheese, thawed and wrung spinach, and Liption onion soup mix. Add more or less of things until you think it tastes good.
- Fill mushroom caps with cream cheese mixture, then top with cooked and crumbled bacon (if using).
- Bake stuffed mushrooms in oven-safe dish at 375F until mushrooms are tender and the filling is just starting to get some color.