pork butternut rosemary stew

It’s getting pretty cold here in Oregon, and the rain has set in for the next few months, which means I’m on my annual comfort food kick. But with work gearing up in the winter, I rarely have time to cook dinner nightly. Which is why I’m totally taken with freezer-friendly meals.
So far [...]

seven-ingredient strawberry balsamic cobbler

Seven ingredients? YES! Seven ingredients!
First, I should say: it’s been forever! I’ve been working a whole lot, I’ve moved, have discovered The Tudors. Needless to say, my dance card’s been full. But now that I’m settled into the new place, I’ve been cooking and baking like none other! So, without further ado, the cobbler:
STRAWBERRY [...]

the world’s easiest sorbets

Two absurdly easy, thrillingly tasty recipes for sorbet. I promise they won’t let you down.
CLEMENTINE SORBET
Combine the juice of 16 clementines with 1/2 cup sugar. Mix well. Freeze. Serve, then freak out at the deliciousness.
BLUEBERRY LEMON SORBET
Ingredients
12 oz. frozen blueberries
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup heavy cream
Directions
Combine all ingredients in [...]

jt’s fried chicken

Okay. So this isn’t actually Justin Timberlake’s fried chicken. That recipe was featured in InTouch or Life & Style or some other tabloid that I flipped through at the grocery store. This is the my best attempt at recreating it. & I’ve got to hand it to JT, or his publicist, [...]

epic fail: salted caramels.

I had some reservations from the get-go about making Ina Garten’s Fleur de Sel Caramels.
Making the caramels requires using a candy thermometer, which is a totally baseless and unreasonable fear of mine. The recipe also calls for boiling a sugar syrup–and, as in fudge, if you don’t get it to the right temperature for [...]

classic deep-dish blueberry pie

I actually kind of made up a pie recipe! It’s an adaptation from one of my favorite cookbooks, The Thanksgiving Table, and it uses my all-time favorite crust recipe. Seriously, this pie crust is delicious–the texture is perfect, and it has never failed me. And I’ve definitely had some pie crust-related drama. [...]

orzo salad

This one wasn’t outstanding, but it was decent. The texture of the orzo and asparagus complement each other well, and the sweetness of the asparagus is a nice contrast to the sharpness of the balsamic and goat cheese. Here goes:
INGREDIENTS
1 small onion, diced
2 teaspoons fresh tarragon
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
3 boneless, [...]

surprisingly ok-for-you stuffing!

I had never made stuffing before tonight. I’ve always had thanksgivings where someone else has had a great signature stuffing that they were eager to make, so I never really had cause to try my hand at it until now. I found this recipe online and modified it slightly to give it a [...]

chocolate toffee bar cookies

This is one of my favorite recipes. It’s super easy, super low maintenance and really hard to mess up. Unlike other bar cookie recipes, this one doesn’t contain any baking soda or powder, so it stays dense and almost fudgy. The toffee bits melt into the batter, making the flavor even richer [...]

eat the gold!

It’s official! After years of baking, and a few months of attempting cooking, I’ve decided to start keeping tabs on what I’ve made, how I’ve made it, and what it looked like. Baking is one of the most relaxing, satisfying things I can think of, and I so often end up with such [...]