Quarantine. Social Distancing. Covid-19. All words I would be 100% happy to NEVER hear again. But here we are. And I personally don’t think this is going to be truly “over” anytime soon. As we are all facing great stress, both at home and at work, I have chosen to focus on welcome distractions. Like my Sourdough Starter. Turns out it has had some great lessons to teach.
My kids LOVE fresh bread. And they can eat loaves and loaves of it if I let them. But bread baking is so tedious, right? WRONG. Turns out this simple Dutch Oven Bread is so stinking simple you could make it every day.
Has anyone else had a bumper crop of zucchini this summer? My tiny backyard garden has been producing zucchini which are the size of clubs. I’ve shredded and frozen more zucchini this summer than I’ve seen in my life. And of course as I’ve been shredding my zucchini, I’ve had to make my Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread. Strangely, even though this quick bread really can’t be qualified as “healthy”, in my book it is because…well, ZUCCHINI!
…
This salad. Goals right here. I could eat this for every meal (actually for 2 days, I did just that-and I have plans to make it again this weekend!). Grilled Peach and Herb Panzanella Salad for the win.
…
Quick Glazed Orange Bread is the treat you’ve been looking for! I made it again for my kids this weekend and then decided you might all want to make it as a treat for your kids. Or your significant other. Or make it for yourself. (what a gift!)
But if you’re making it for yourself, you may want to have someone else hide half of it where you can’t find it so you don’t eat all of it in one sitting. Or do eat all of it in one sitting. Trust me, we won’t judge.
After all, after you taste it, we know you’ll want to.
…
Oh, you guys. I have had the worst sweet tooth lately. Typically, I love to bake sweets and treats but primarily for others. My husband has a legendary addiction to all things sugar, but typically I lean towards the salty/crunchy snacks. As the weather has turned, I’ve found myself gravitating toward butter, sugar, and most definitely all things chocolate. Since I’ve been delving into all of these sweet treat recipes, I thought I’d share a few I’ve recently tried or am planning to make with you all for this week’s Good Food Reads: Sweets and Treats….
Like most people, every now and then I get a craving for something slightly outside of my regular food rotation and I need to have it now. When I was pregnant with my daughter, those cravings involved milk (not something I typically love) and veggie subs (so random). This past weekend, I was sitting in my kitchen and looked over on the counter to see a whole bag of fresh lemons that I had picked up at Costco on a whim. I was suddenly struck by the feeling that I needed to have some lemon bread as soon as possible. As I dug out my go to recipe for quick breads, I realized that there was one big hurdle to my lemon bread dreams: I was out of butter. Now, as a food blogger and home cook, that was a major oops. And since my husband was out running errands and I was home with the kids, my choices were to either take the kids to Target for butter or get creative and make something up. Since I’d rather suffer the consequences of an unfulfilled dessert craving than brave the craziness that is Target on a Sunday afternoon, I opened up my fridge and got to work. The result of that kitchen experimentation was this Easy Glazed Lemon Bread. …
I don’t think it’s any secret around here that I’m totally obsessed with soup. I would happily eat soup (or stew or chili) every day, no matter the season or weather. I make quick soups on weeknights, long simmering soups and stews on the weekend and chili whenever the temp dips below 30 degrees. Over the years, I’ve found many recipes that I make again and again. One of my favorites (and a winter staple in my house) is my Chipotle and Stout chili recipe (find it here!). During the fall and winter, it’s on the menu weekly. I love to serve soups and stews with a great bread. I have a great beer bread recipe as well as Lane’s fantastic Parker House Rolls for soup and stew, but what I really wanted was a go-to cornbread recipe. Having never really found a recipe that I was head over heels for, I decided to make my own. I spent some time in the kitchen this fall testing out a ton of variations. After much trial and error, I came up with this recipe for Jalapeño Cheddar Cornbread. I hope you love it as much as I do!…
Parker House Rolls. What is better than fresh bread? Yet for years I was really intimidated by anything that needed to “rise”. I thought that it was easier to buy bread and that there was not much difference in the taste. Well, I was probably right on the first count, but I was oh so wrong on the second count. There is nothing like fresh bread!…
It’s Wednesday, which means it’s time yet again for another Good (Food) Reads. The last week has been a bit of a whirlwind around here and that has had me on the hunt for quick and easy recipes that the whole family will love. With that in mind, here are this week’s Good (Food) Reads:
Do any of you have an Instant Pot? I got mine last summer on super sale as part of Amazon’s much (over) hyped Prime Day. Since that time, I’ve heard countless people rave about the amazing – and quick! – meals they’ve prepared courtesy of their IPs. Sadly, until now I’ve only used it as a glorified quinoa cooker. Last night I tackled this recipe for Instant Pot Honey Bourbon Chicken. Now, before you guys go nuts, I know there is no bourbon in the recipe. It was a super quick recipe that produced really flavorful, tender chicken in about 20 minutes. I served it with steamed broccoli and Trader Joes’ Organic Brown Rice. I will say that the chicken was a little sweet for me (though my toddler and husband loved it!), so next time I’ll cut the honey down a bit, add a little more soy sauce and may sauté in some actual bourbon at the end….