Tag Archives: the kitchn

General, Tips & Tricks

Lesson learned

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Cooking is all about making mistakes. Sometimes you have to test recipes a few times before you get the desired result. Sometimes you just aren’t thinking straight. Over the weekend, that was me.

It has been nice and warm here in Atlanta lately — time to start firing up the grill. Eric and I were in the mood for coconut shrimp so I figured, hey, how hard could it be? I’ve made them before in the oven with great success so I just followed the same recipe.

Welp, I didn’t think about how coating shrimp in flake coconut might not be the best idea on the grill. About 30 seconds after I put the skewers on the grill, most of the coconut had fallen off the shrimp and was beginning to catch on fire. Not good. Luckily, I was able to control the flames and still salvage the shrimp. They were tasty, just not coconutty — and with a bit of a sweet char.

Next time I want to do coconut shrimp on the grill, I think I will marinade the shrimp in coconut milk for an hour or so before putting them on the grill. I think that will be met with a much higher success rate.

But not everything has been a failure! I have finally figured out the perfect way to cook quinoa — and I have The Kitchn to thank for that. I’ve used this method a few times and every time it results in the perfect, fluffy batch of quinoa. Quinoa is so much better when cooked properly, by the way.

I still owe you a recap of our eating adventures in Charleston. Spoiler alert: everything was amazing. We are heading to Las Vegas tomorrow for our anniversary trip — where we will also be eating quite a bit — so I will have a combined eating recap when we return.

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General

It doesn’t always have to be perfect

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The other night while scrolling through my blog roll, this article from The Kitchn popped up and I immediately bookmarked it. It basically talks about food bloggers don’t usually post about the ordinary things they cook and eat. They try to make every post about something amazing or groundbreaking. But not everything that comes out of the kitchen is something new and amazing.

I’ve been feeling bummed about my lack of posting as of late, but the truth of the matter is, that is the way life goes sometimes. While Eric and I are getting in to our new routine with my new job — not going to lie — there’s been a lot of convenience food for dinner. Frozen pizzas. Eating out. And as a lover of cooking and food, it pains me. But there has been nothing as of late that has felt worthy of sharing on here and I don’t want to clutter your feed with less than stellar posts.

But that is also a cop out. Just because I haven’t been cooking doesn’t mean I don’t have stuff to share. Until I get back in the routine of trying out new recipes and what not, I am going to try to at least blog about what I’ve been doing or loving at the moment. For example, if you are in the market for a frozen pizza and can find California Pizza Kitchen ones on sale near you (they can be kinda pricey), the Greek one is excellent. Thin crusted, delicious flavors. I highly recommend it. It’s a great easy dinner served alongside a salad or some quickly cooked up veggies.

There should be a post going up soon from Eric about the meal we (mostly he) cooked this weekend when my mom came over. And one of the recipes is definitely worth sharing. I just have to get him to write it. If you know Eric in real life, tell him to get on it!

Friday Faves

Friday Faves

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I was a bad food blogger this week. I have not cooked a single dinner at home. We’ve just been busy with dinners out with friends and a work event — but I promise to get back in to the swing of things next week.

But I did eat a lot of my homemade sweet potato chips this week. Probably every day. They are just so good and so easy to make. It is kind of unbelievable how I have never thought to do it before. I think next week I might try some apple chips in the microwave so stay tuned.

I saw this recipe on The Kitchn last night and can’t stop thinking about it. Savory french toast? It makes a lot of sense — french toast doesn’t always have to be sweet. Just look at how amazing it looks.

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Mouth. Watering. Mmmm. Bread and cheese — always a winning combination.

We’re having my parents over for dinner this weekend and I’m going to make a red wine pot roast. The weather’s warmed up here in Atlanta quite a bit, so it’s not exactly pot roast weather anymore. But who cares? It sounds delicious and I can’t wait to make it. If all goes well, I’ll share the recipe with you next week.

Friday Faves

Friday Faves

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Hello all! How are you liking my new blog design? Have to say I’m mildly obsessed. I keep looking at it and petting my computer screen — kidding of course. That is definitely one of my faves this week. I’ve loved playing around in WordPress. It makes me feel a lot more tech savvy than I really am.

So I’ve been obsessed with fruit lately. Kinda weird, I suppose, but there are worse things you could be obsessed with. I bought a big bag of pears at Trader Joe’s for three bucks last week and have been working my through them. But my favorite snack is a golden delicious apple with my homemade peanut butter dip. Now apples are delicious on their own, but paired with this dip, they are out of this world. I’ve been eating this for dessert all week (while Eric has been finishing off the berry pie we made over the weekend). It’s simple — mixed 2 tablespoons of Cool Whip and 1 teaspoon peanut butter together. Boom. Done. Enjoy the deliciousness. You can add more peanut butter if you like, but I find this ratio has a nice, subtle peanut butter flavor. I think peanut butter is one of the world’s most perfect foods.

As I wrote about a few months back, I love cookbooks. I would buy a ton more cookbooks if I had endless space (one day I will have a library in my house). So to keep my purchasing in check, I get cookbooks at the library. The libraries in Atlanta have pretty much any book you’d ever want. I then scan the recipes I want to keep using the Genius Scan app on my phone. I now am armed with a whole new arsenal of recipes I can’t wait to try, so thank you public library.

My obsession with The Kitchn continues. I find myself reading every single post everyday. That’s how you know you’d got my attention. My favorite article this week was The Best Cheeses For Tacos. I am now convinced I need to make these:

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Those are mini tacos — WITH A SHELL MADE FROM CHEESE. Here’s the recipe for those who are as interested as I am.  Now this is all I want to eat. Sounds like a potential Super Bowl party recipe to me.