Read Your Recipe!
I once worked for a neighbor/family friend who had a little cafe. I was probably sixteen, and she intended me to waitress. Turned out I was a really, REALLy bad waitress. The neighbor actually had to tell me, “you’ve got two strikes, one more and you’re out”. And I got the third strike. They moved me back to the kitchen. The silver lining is that I learned how to make a mean tuna salad. The dark stormy cloud is that sucked as a waitress (my time at Uncle Bill’s Pancake House further supported this sad fact). What’s the connection to this sandwich? I’m getting there.
The interesting thing about being particular is that you more often get what you want. Case and point – my father. He hates sweets of all kind, preferring instead the really bland, old school, stale-seeming Italian cookies. He does like a good carrot cake, though, so every September he gets a carrot cake for his birthday! It’s nice, in a way, to know exactly what he wants as you’re ensured a great response for putting in the work of making a homemade cake. And it is work, but of a more satisfying sort than most. Let me explain…
I really wish there was a way to make this picture better. I’m sorry. Story goes like this; I made the recipe, took just the “finished” picture, then ate away, not really planning on saving the recipe on homebeccanomics. Turns out I can’t get this out of my head! All of the ingredients are on my current food shopping list because I cannot WAIT to eat it again. It’s ridiculously good for you, easy as can be (just need to know how to use a knife), and truly one of the most pleasing things I have eaten in a while – something about the surprising apple-y sweetness with the fresh lime – YUM. The picture is bad, though.
If you have a garden, you might be finding yourself with lots of zucchini right about now. Don’t complain, at least you have a garden (I, obviously, have no garden). I found myself with two zucchini I’d bought at the WC Grower’s market and hadn’t used yet; I cannot throw out produce. Produce wasting inspires major guilt in my veggie-loving soul. Can’t make any more zucchini bread? Here is a easy, healthy, and oh-so-tasty way to put the green guys to use.
I made 20 cupcakes on Saturday. I ate one of them on Saturday night. I didn’t freeze any. They were all gone by Sunday night. Doesn’t this sound like one of those (really hard!) 5th grade word problems in math class? What I am trying to say is that seconds were had. My friend Brad actually had 3.
I’m fully aware that the title of these might scare you off. My initial gut reaction to you being scared off from eating these is “oh good, more for me”. Cottage cheese seems to be one of the foods you don’t like until you’re in your 20′s – I mean, curds? Seriously? My high school students would get so skeeved out when I told them what they’d be making in class, but they would fight tooth and nail over the last one once they’d had a taste. They’re. So. Good.
There are quite a few things that parents of babies/young children do nowadays that were definitely not done when our parents were young. Just ask them, they will tell you; my mother-in-law uses the acronym “TYG” when describing something that “these young girls” do at her workplace. One example of the generation gap is the “first birthday party”. Now, we aren’t dummies, we know that the kid doesn’t know what’s going on. It’s a celebration of the fact that parents and baby made it through the first year and an excuse to have a fun party with your friends. I guess you could use the “if your friends jumped off a bridge, would you?” example here, but whatever. My friends all threw big first birthday parties, so I did too. That’s where the meatballs come in, obviously.
This dish blends the late summer veggies (that you might be getting bored with) with warm, cheesy, comforting fall food. I made this for my (husband’s) family one night recently, and several of them were with me as I threw it together. My mother in law said, “now what’s this?” with a politeness to her voice that belied her skepticism. My brother-in-law Tom just looked at it with one eyebrow raised. Pretty, this is not. It looks like scary, typical, “health-food”. I’ll tell you what though, mother-in-law asked for the recipe and Tom scraped the remnants sticking to the pot directly into his mouth. It tastes like risotto but is SO much better for you, and I’ll tell you why.
No food processor, no standing mixer, no kneading – no lie! All you need is a bowl, a whisk, a spoon, and a baking sheet. Now some recipes I post here barely need the “how-to” pics as the directions are pretty standard; this recipe (and all that use yeast), benefits from the photos. I will show you EXACTLY how it should look so that you know things are working properly. This will make a simple recipe even easier, if that’s possible – and there is nothing tastier than fresh, garlicky, olive-oily bread.
Some of my married girlfriends cook dinner for their families EVERY NIGHT. We’re talking meat, vegetable, grain style. Now on the other hand, one friends’ husband is lucky if his wife heats him up a Lipton side (girl you knooow I just called you out!). Still other couples BOTH enjoy cooking(yay Kristen and Mike!). Sadly this is not the case for us – I was gone for a few days last week and my husband told me he didn’t even WALK INTO the kitchen. Who does that?