Move over, cat videos. Tasty videos are the new online obsession.
We've all seen these posted on Facebook from Buzzfeed Food and others. These videos feature a person making a recipe, all filmed from his or her point of view. Some are narrated and others just feature catchy music and captions to go along with the video. The end result is often a delicious and mouthwatering dish that we're lead to believe (because we just saw whole the process) is a cinch to make.
Tasty videos are always entertaining to watch, but there are some recipes I see and my immediate reaction is, Really? Looks like a hot mess to me...
About a month ago, one really caught my eye as something that could just be crazy enough to work: Chicken Bacon Ranch pasta, posted by Twisted Food on Facebook.
Posts published in “Recipes”
Originally posted on Fuchsia-Revolver.org.
I came across a recipe for Homemade Irish Cream that presented me with a perfect excuse to imbibe over the holiday weekend while simultaneously knocking off one of my my foodie resolutions while doing so. Pretty cool. ;)
I guess Irish Cream is considered a cordial... or a liqueur. Serious Eats suggests that the terms are interchangeable, with cordial appearing more often on dessert-like products: liqueurs flavored with coffee, cream, chocolate, etc.
In 2015, I set out to complete a list of foodie resolutions over the course of the year. The inspiration for the challenge came from an MSN Food & Drink article featuring 51 new things that foodies should try. Foodie Resolutions have since become a tradition for me to blog about, with goals set at the beginning of each year and progress updates along the way.
In honor of Oktoberfest, here is a recap of my progress and experience completing one of my 2015 goals: to make homemade mustard. Updated September 2016.
Want to see more posts from Meal Prep Week? Search for #MealPrepWeek or see a recap of all of the posts here.
I came home hungry from work one day and was too lazy to make something from scratch. It happens, right? Rather than resulting to take-out, I peeked around in my pantry and freezer for pasta, cheese, and some spinach to make this tasty Alfredo pasta dish in about a half-hour or less.
It's perfectly OK to use a good, jarred alfredo sauce in this. I totally have in the past and did the little trick of adding onions and garlic to make it taste more like homemade, along with a little milk or cream to thin out the sauce (complete with adding it to the jar and giving the whole thing an ol' swish around to get the last of the sauce out.) If you have a little extra time, then alfredo sauce is definitely better to make and still requires just a few simple ingredients: garlic, butter, cream, and parmesan.
Want to see more posts from Meal Prep Week? Search for #MealPrepWeek or see a recap of all of the posts here.
Take-out is expensive and not really that great for you. Fortunately, it is really easy to make at home—especially with frozen ingredients that you can assemble, portion, and freeze ahead of time.
For the past few years I've made these make-and-freeze bagged meals. These are similar to ones that you can buy in the frozen section at the store, but customizable with the quantities and ingredients that you want to include. They're also cheaper and healthier, in many cases, since you know exactly what you're putting into them and can add the sauce later to your taste.
My two favorite meals to make are veggie stir-fry with soy chicken (or "fake chicken," as my family likes to call it) and shrimp with broccoli. I combine all of the ingredients, sans sauce, in a bowl and use a cup measure to portion into quart- or gallon-sized freezer bags, mark with the number of servings, and pop in the freezer. They're very simple to assemble, and even quicker to heat up and serve. Top simply with soy sauce or Sriracha, or with a sauce for something fancier.
Fun fact: today is National Whiskey Sour Day.
Not like I really need "a day" for whiskey drinking—anyone who knows me personally knows that whiskey-, rye-, and bourbon-based drinks are my jam—but sadly it's not just any day that you can find a good whiskey sour.
A "sour" is a family of drinks that includes the Daquiri, Margarita, and Sidecar. The formula to make a sour cocktail is simple: spirit + the "sour part" (like lemon or lime juice) + the "sweet" part (like simple syrup).
Easy as that. In theory.
I say "in theory" because a simple, three-part recipe should be hard to screw up but yet I hate ordering whiskey sours at restaurants. Actually, I hate ordering most mixed drinks at most restaurants, with chain restaurants and sports bars being the biggest offenders: The sour and sweet parts of mixed drinks are usually co-mingled here in the form of sickeningly-sweet, nuclear yellow-colored bottled sour mix. Yuck.
I started eating meat again earlier this year after almost 14 full years of being vegetarian (or 10 years, if you don't want to count the fact that I was technically a pescatarian for the past four.) Swedish meatballs have since become one of my go-to dinners. It is a quick and easy to make dish that is delicious when served over egg noodles with lingonberry jam.
If you don't have some on-hand already, you'll want to buy a jar of lingonberry jam to serve with. Similar to eating cranberries with Thanksgiving turkey and gravy, the jam adds a nice, sweet-tart flavor to compliment the rich sour cream gravy that goes with the meatballs.
Fair warning: Don't try to substitute strawberry or raspberry jam. It won't be the same. If you're worried about having leftover jam sitting in your fridge for all eternity, don't worry -- you'll want to make this dish again (we make it a few times a month, it's that good) and there are plenty of other uses for it, too.
