Both of my parents turn 60 this year, so my sisters and I planned a big surprise party for them. The party was this past weekend and it went better than I could have imagined! They were totally surprised and everyone seemed to have a great time. I made lots of tasty food, but the real showstopper was this crazy s’mores cake. Not only was it big and multi tiered, but I got to light it on fire at the party!
It’s officially the season for watching Football and eating tasty treats while doing it. Here in New England, the Patriots aren’t off to the best start, but that doesn’t mean we can’t have some beer and good food while yelling at the TV! I recently partnered with Tabasco to create a New England game-time recipe and for my regional ingredient I was assigned Lobster. I LOVE lobster, but it’s a tough ingredient to use when you are talking about “homegating”, because football food tends to be bold, cheesy, and often fried, three things that don’t come to mind when talking lobster. After brainstorming for awhile, I came up with this awesome lobster popper recipe that felt like football food but still featured the lobster without overpowering it or losing it in the mix.
I had an ice cream at Ronnybrook Farm Dairy at Chelsea Market about a month ago that was “2 cookies and cream”. It was really clever and also really really delicious to mix chocolate chip cookies into the regular cookies and cream. Ice cream has been on the brain lately, and September is my favorite time of the year to eat ice cream, so I decided to top their flavor and double the cookie content! In addition to oreo and chocolate chip, I also mixed in peanut butter cookies, and finished it all off with a speculoos cookie spread as a swirl. This was hands down the best ice cream I have ever made! My only question is “who can top that shit, who can top that shit”?
There is always something great about making that first dish in your new kitchen. Learning the new space, finding out things that are great and not so great about it. Realizing things that you forgot to move or get at the store and making quick changes to the dish based on that. I made these bacon coconut noodles as the first dish at the place I moved into a few days ago and I am absolutely loving it. The kitchen and the noodles.
September is the time when I crave chili the most. I love a veggie packed chili, but this time of the year it is a shame to cook your veggies too long because they are so fresh and tasty! I decided to try and make this chili sort of backwards by letting the meat and spices simmer away in the crock pot all day and then adding the veggies at the last minute. The resulting dish was super tasty with a nice juxtaposition of deep slow cooked flavors and fresh light crunchy veggies.
Loaded potato flavors in these hearty cheesy spring rolls.
When I hang out with this one group of friends, we have a bit of a problem where everyone has specific diet restrictions. Someone is vegetarian, another is allergic to gluten, and the third is just generally pretty picky. We have found that one of the best dinners for us all to enjoy is a make your own summer roll party. We prepare tons of fillings, and then each person dips their rice paper into some water and rolls up their own delicious creation. Here are some photos from our most recent summer roll party!
Whoa! Sorry for the sudden disappearance for a few weeks. I’m still alive Mom! Things have been really crazy over here and work has been in crisis mode. I’m back now and things are going to be really exciting here with some big changes coming in the next couple weeks!
Anyway, lets move on to todays recipe. I recently had a break in my crazy work schedule and was able to carve out a few hours to have a nice night with some good friends. I have been eating really healthy lately and wanted to make something with fresh summer veggies and not much else. I went with these gnocchi made out of roasted cauliflower instead of potatoes and dressed them in a light sauce of roasted tomato, broccoli rabe, garlic, and olive oil. These tasted light and summery but also super savory and filling at the same time. This dinner combined with a fun night with friends was exactly what I needed to get over my long work week.
A coconut twist on a Vietnamese Cold Vermicelli Salad.
This burger uses potato skins as the bun.
Whether you are a lobster roll purist, or a banh mi purist I think we can all get on board with this amazing sandwich.
I wanna grow tomatoes on the front steps. Sunflowers, bean sprouts, sweet corn and radishes. This is what Courtney Barnett is planning in her song Avant Gardener before her day takes a bad turn. I imagine that things got better and she was able to plant that garden eventually so the neighbors would stop thinking that they have a meth lab in the house. Then one day after the garden grew, she made this sweet salad with the harvest.
