As this blog has evolved over the course of the last eleven(!) years, so too has my approach to recipe selection and development. The more readers trust me to provide recipes that are delicious, reliable, and worth their time, the more I strive to deliver. In my kitchen I always make the food that I want to make, but I only share the food I think you would want to make, that deserves your consideration, and has been carefully tested by yours truly. In the early days I couldn’t have imagined testing a recipe more than once or at most twice before slapping it up on these pages but now I generally expect that three rounds of testing and tweaking will ensue before a recipe makes its way to you. When, earlier this week, I made this tropi-cobb salad and had a gut instinct while I was making it that it was ready to be photographed right then to be shared with you as soon as possible, it was such a funny feeling. It harkened back to ye’ ole’ days of blogging and also went against all of my learned instincts.

This salad truly is exactly what I want to eat right now. Summer cooking can be a challenge because the heat makes me want to avoid making anything too labor intensive or requiring a ton of time at the stove or oven, and the good weather makes me want to go outside and enjoy it. I love this salad because it is fresh and light while still super satisfying, and it doesn’t take too much time to throw together. Get the chicken in the marinade straight away and while that is doing its thang, prep the rest of the salad ingredients. The end result is perfect summer fare! The flavors excite my tastebuds and the colors are simply beautiful.

The kids loved this too, although they both complained about the basil leaves being left whole. While I think that’s crazy, maybe opt for chopping the basil if you have finicky palates to consider. It made for excellent leftovers as well! I packed the whole thing in a single container with the dressing and toppings on the bottom, lettuce on top, and was careful not to let it get shaken up before lunchtime. It worked great and now I have another excellent healthy recipe to rely on. I hope you love this as much as I do!

The post Tropi-Cobb Salad appeared first on Everyday Annie.

As those of you who follow Baking Bites on Facebook might already know, Craftsy is now Bluprint. I’ve been a Craftsy contributor for a few years now (time flies!) and have shared lots of great recipes and tutorials over there. You’ll still be able to find those older recipes and I’ll be contributing new content to the new site, which has some expanded offerings over the original. You can get your first taste with my latest post, 6 Things to Do With a Watermelon This Weekend! Over in the full post, I outline several ways to enjoy summer watermelon and I am sure that you’ll discover at least one new idea you haven’t tried yet. In fact, I recommend picking up a full size watermelon instead of one of the individual size melons so that you have plenty of melon to work with. That said, opt for seedless so you can maximize the amount of watermelon you can eat (and the amount of prep that you have to do to get to it).

Need more watermelon inspiration? Try these recipes!

• Watermelon and Strawberry Sorbet
• Watermelon Frose
• Watermelon Cupcakes (these don’t use fruit, but they’re delicious!!)
• Watermelon Salsa with Grilled Tri-Tip

The post Baking Bites for Bluprint: 6 Ways to Watermelon this Weekend! appeared first on Baking Bites.

The post The Mini Southport Dress appeared first on Everyday Annie.

This gnocchi recipe was taught to me when a friend came to visit from Genoa, Italy. Her mother came with her, and one night, alongside a small mountain of beautiful, fragrant basil, she taught us her homemade gnocchi recipe. I posted about the pesto we made to go with it in a separate post, and as promised the gnocchi as a followup. You ready!?

Gnocchi takes Patience

Gnocchi recipes aren’t for the faint of heart. Many, many things can go awry. I’m not trying to scare you off or dissuade you, I just want you to know what you are in for. Gnocchi-making takes practice, patience, and persistence. At their best, potato gnocchi can be light and delicate. At their worst, dense, rubbery, and/or soggy. The very worst are the gnocchi that come apart in the boiling water before they even reach your plate.

The Simplest Ingredients

The platter of petite, potato pillows coated with glistening flecks of basil pesto that Francesca’s mother made us that night was beautiful. The gnocchi recipe she taught us had just three ingredients – boiled, starchy russet potatoes combined with a minimal amount of flour (too much flour and your gnocchi are going to be heavy), and a bit of salt – no eggs. I’ve tweaked her version to be a little more user-friendly here, because to be honest, eggless gnocchi are very tricky to get the hang of, very delicate to handle. I’m afraid if I post the eggless version here, there will be a number of you who will try it, get frustrated, and curse me. So, a bit of egg it is.

This Gnocchi Recipe: The Details

In the version here, I incorporate just enough egg to act as a bit of a binder for the gnocchi. We still aren’t using an excessive amount of flour, and the resulting gnocchi are deliciously light. They can also stand up to a toss with your favorite sauce. You can see them pictured at the top of this post, tossed with this favorite pesto.

If you are committed to trying the eggless version, try this version first. After that, perhaps the next time around, use half the egg, and the time after that go for no egg. By that time, you should have all the other steps figured out and you’ll have a better vantage point and level of experience from which to work You’ll also have a better sense of how to handle and work with the dough.

So, here it is – the long awaited gnocchi recipe. Give it a go, and let me know what you think. If you know how to make pesto, this is the time to do it! A simple toss is perfect. 

Continue reading How to Make Gnocchi like an Italian Grandmother on 101 Cookbooks

Post sponsored by the French Ministry of Agriculture. See below for more details.

One of my first forays into cooking was for my school's international dinner night. I was in French class and within the first few weeks of class, I became obsessed with French culture. I thought the language and the art was (and still is) beautiful but the food, oh the food. There's nothing quite like a meal of French food shared around a table of friends and family (plus any given day I'd gladly take a croissant and coffee for breakfast).

And so, these crepes are a bit of an updated nod to bringing French culture home. We eat savory crepes quite often and the roasted tomatoes tossed with a hazelnut-butter dressing might be my favorite summer treat. When served warm, the St. Agur blue cheese melts a bit into the tomatoes and it's so rich and delicious. What really brings this meal home is the Trimbach Pinot Blanc. The wine helps balance the richness of all that wonderful President butter and St. Agur blue cheese.

Best of all, you can make an extra large batch of the crepes to use throughout the month (they freeze amazingly well). Have these beautiful savory crepes for dinner then have a breakfast crepe or dessert crepe the following week. Or, if you're like me and have a child- a bit of nut butter and honey spread instead a crepe makes for the perfect snack!

Read more and see the recipe.

The post Crepes with Tomatoes and Butter Hazelnuts appeared first on Naturally Ella.

Stuck on an app idea that is not a cheese plate or veggies and hummus? Look at these cute little guys! So cute. I much prefer to entertain outside than in (I think we've sat at our dining table maybe twice?), so we've been inviting friends to join us for dinner more often. The appetizer is not the part of the meal I wish to put effort towards, and these little numbers take all of 10 minutes to put together and can totally be prepped ahead and dressed last minute. If you don't find yourself needing tiny things on a skewer, I put the extra bits of watermelon and cucumber over some arugula, add some salmon, the following feta vinaigrette and wa lah, dinner. 

I recently worked with 31 Bits on a shoot featuring some of their new kitchen line. I've been using the indigo plant-dyed napkins for summer dinners and a handful of other pretty items are up on their homepage at the moment. You can read more on their company on the about page, but the they're pretty awesome as a whole. A few local girls run it and their mission is to bring more job opportunities and fair wages to artisans all over the world. Anyway, we're doing a giveaway over on instagram wednesday thru friday if you want to participate. 

WATERMELON + CUCUMBER SKEWERS

Makes 12

The skewers shown are available at World Market or here.

Ingredients

2 Tbsp. minced shallot
1/2 tsp. dried oregano
1/4 cup fresh chopped mint, divided
2.5 Tbsp. white wine vinegar
4 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil

2 ounces feta cheese
sea salt and fresh ground pepper

1 mini, seedless watermelon, cut in 1” cubes
3 Persian cucumbers

Instructions

In a small mixing bowl, combine the shallot, oregano, half of the mint, vinegar, oil and a pinch of salt and pepper. Give it all a stir. Crumble in the feta and give it another stir, a few chunks are ok. 

Shave the cucumbers into strands with a vegetable peeler, lengthwise. Assemble them on the skewer by putting a cube of watermelong, folding a slice of cucumber like an accordion, and then another cube of watermelon on top. Arrange them on your serving tray and drizzle the feta vinaigrette over the top. Garnish with a sprinkle of fresh mint, a grind of fresh pepper and serve.

Chocolate and coffee are always a good combination and this Espresso Brownie Cake is the perfect dessert if you want to enjoy both together. It is made with a very generous dose of dark chocolate and plenty of espresso, along with a splash of coffee liqueur. The cake evenly delivers intense coffee and chocolate flavors that really compliment each other.

Brownies are known for their dense, chewy texture and deep chocolate flavor, but this cake isn’t as dense as a brownie is. Instead, it has brownie in the name because it also delivers an intense chocolate flavor. It is lighter in texture than a classic, chewy brownie, however, and has a tight, tender crumb that almost melts in your mouth as you eat it.

I used brewed espresso in this cake for a very strong coffee flavor. If you don’t have espresso, you can substitute strong or dark roast brewed coffee. The coffee should be warm or at room temperature, but it does not need to be extremely hot. The coffee is added to a warm mixture of melted chocolate and butter, so warm coffee incorporates much more easily than cold would. Coffee liqueur is added for extra coffee flavor, but it can be substituted for additional coffee if you prefer to have an alcohol-free cake.

There is a generous amount of dark chocolate in this cake and I recommend using one with a cacao content somewhere between 55 and 70% for best results. Chocolate in this range will give you a great chocolate flavor without making the cake too bitter. Although the cake recipe calls for a fair amount of sugar, it really isn’t overly sweet thanks to the intensity of the dark chocolate and the espresso/coffee in the batter.

This is a great cake that can be serve all year round. Although it’s not a layer cake, it’s a fairly tall cake and has a real presence on the dessert table. In the summer, you can pair it with ice cream or fresh berries. In the winter, you can serve it alongside a cup of coffee or with some caramel sauce drizzled over the top to make it even more indulgent.

Espresso Brownie Cake
7 oz dark chocolate (55-70%), coarsely chopped
1 cup butter, room temperature
1 1/4 cups espresso or dark roast coffee, warm or room temperature
1/4 cup coffee liqueur (such as Kahlua)
2 cups sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 325F. Lightly grease a 9-inch springform pan.
In a large, microwave-safe bowl, melt together dark chocolate and butter, stirring until mixture is very smooth. Stir in espresso/coffee and coffee liqueur, followed by the sugar, eggs and vanilla extract.
In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. Stir flour mixture into chocolate mixture, mixing just until no streaks of dry ingredients remain. Pour into prepared pan.
Bake for 70 minutes, or until cake is set and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out with only a few moist crumbs attached.
Allow cake to cool completely in the pan before removing the sides of the springform and sliding the cake onto a serving plate.

Serves 10-12

The post Espresso Brownie Cake appeared first on Baking Bites.

It’s about time this awesome sauce got its very own post. Everything that I drizzle this Lime Crema on is elevated to “OMG” status. It’s just so freaking good. It only takes a few simple ingredients and about five minutes to make, so it’s totally worth adding this to your next southwest-inspired meal. If you want to take your recipe from just “good” to AH-MAZ-ING, this Lime Crema is your key.

Lime Crema

How to Use Lime Crema

So what do you use this magical Lime Crema for? I like to drizzle it on tacos, nachos, tostadas, and have even used it as a sort of salad dressing. Swirl it into a soup or chili, or even use it as a simple tangy chip dip. Why not? It’s just an all around yum sauce.

Step by Step Photos

First, zest the lime and then squeeze its juice into a small bowl. You’ll want about 1 tsp zest and 1 Tbsp juice. 

Add 1 tsp zest, 1 Tbsp lime juice, one small clove of garlic (minced), and 1/4 tsp salt to an 8 oz. container of sour cream. Stir to combine, then use immediately, or refrigerate until ready to use.

I usually just prepare my lime crema before I begin my meal, so it has at least a few minutes for the flavors to infuse into the cream as I cook, but I can verify that it’s still super tasty just after mixing (I always have a hard time not licking the spoon!).

What do you like to add Lime Crema to? Leave your favorites in the comments below!

The post Lime Crema appeared first on Budget Bytes.

Spontaneity has never been my strong suit. I’ve always admired it from afar, nodding my head approvingly at the idea of carpe diem, going with the flow, and all of that. But acknowledging its value and actually welcoming it into my life are two very different things.

I know that my resistance to spontaneity has to do with my attachment to control, or the idea of it, which is something I’m trying to let go of. It’s not easy to let go of things, though, when letting go is often more uncomfortable than not. When I try to be more spontaneous or to roll with the punches I usually end up feeling destabilized and off-kilter, which doesn’t encourage me to do it more often.

Sometimes being freewheeling with my schedule and saying yes to things at the last minute means that I lose time for the actions and routines that keep me grounded and healthy: yoga, cooking, moving at a steady pace, consciously creating solo time if I’ve been around people a lot. It’s taken me a while to figure out how important these things are to my overall well-being, so of course I work hard to preserve them. But I know that there’s a fine line between protecting my nourishing habits and clinging to routine. And the more set in my habits I allow myself to be, the more convinced I become that I can’t handle changing them—a sense of fragility that I neither want nor need.

This week, I played around with being spontaneous—not intentionally, but because chances to do it came up. On Wednesday, a friend ended up with a gap in his work schedule and asked me whether I’d like to meet up for a while. I’d had a long morning of cooking and was immediately inclined to say no, but when I tried to imagine how it would be to sit down and catch up with him, I realized how much I wanted to say yes. I did said yes, in spite of being a little worn out, and our time was really energizing. I was glad he asked, and I thanked him for doing it.

On Friday, I realized that the plans I thought I’d committed to for Sunday were in fact happening on Saturday. As soon as I realized my error, I wanted to bail, because the day had taken shape in my mind already. Once again, I thought about what saying yes would feel like, and it was a positive enough visualization that I could push through the discomfort of the unanticipated changes in timing.

As it turned out, most of my Saturday shifted around under my feet; the day I thought I’d be having isn’t a bit like the one I had. But the one I had was fun and rich and sweet, and it’s very possible that the Saturday I’d initially counted on would have been less so. Or at least, it wouldn’t have been this Saturday, with the experiences it contained. So I’m happy I gave myself over to the flow of things, rather than tensing up against the unanticipated.

Not long ago, I wrote about the importance of saying no, and I stand by those words. But it’s important for me to resist rigid thought patterns that coax me into thinking that, if one thing is true, something oppositional must be untrue. Saying no is the right choice for me sometimes. Saying yes is right sometimes, too. Siding with one at the expense of the other saves me the work of learning to carefully discern whether a “yes” or a “no” is right for me in any given moment, which is part of the greater work of learning to tune into my own needs and listen to my intuition. But that’s good work, work that wants doing.

Navigating the space between openness and boundaries isn’t a straightforward business, and as I keep trying I know that I’ll inevitably have some missteps. I’ll opt in to things that tire me out, or I’ll miss out on moments that might have been fun and rewarding.

That’s OK. Another tendency I’m working on these days is my tendency to be precious, to regard each moment as a one-shot deal. I’m constantly assuring my nutrition clients who a) have the privilege of steady food access and b) have a tendency create a lot of suffering around getting food choices “right” or “wrong” that no single meal is all that important; there will be others, lots of opportunity to make different choices. So too with connection and experience. There’s always another chance to practice, if we’re up for it.

Wishing you a week full of yes’s and no’s, as the case may be, and appreciation of them all. Here are my recipe picks and reads from the past week.

Recipes

My friend Amanda just celebrated a burger month on her blog, with plenty of incredible recipes, and this crispy quinoa cauliflower burger is my favorite so far.

This vegan kimchi mac n’ cheese has been bookmarked for my next comfort food craving. So much cheesy and umami goodness!

I can never get enough smashed chickpea salad recipes, and right now I’ve got my eyes on Brandi’s awesome caesar version. What a cool idea to use artichoke brine.

Sara’s beautiful grilled mushroom bowls with muhamarra are inspiring me to get my grill pan out for the first time this summer.

Almond butter fudgsicles, anyone?

Reads

1. I loved reading Eric Kim’s tearjerker of an ode to the five cookbooks that have made him cry. Zahav is the only one I’ve read, but they’re all on my wish list now.

2. Speaking of my wish list, I’m eager to take a closer look at this list of 39 health and science titles for the summer.

3. A new research review points to the benefits of a plant-based diet for heart health.

4. I really like this article on raising vegan/vegetarian kids and teens—it’s both supportive and evidence-based, and the dietitians interviewed offer good tips and guidelines for parents.

5. This post was written for Mental Health Awareness Month, which is behind us, but I’m sharing it because I’m so glad that my friend Stepfanie had the guts to share about her experience with anxiety. I can intimately relate to the digging of nails into tender flesh to help distract oneself from racing thoughts or irrational fears—and I’m guessing I’m not the only one.

Each time any of us takes the time to put experience into words, we contribute to a culture in which mental health struggles can be acknowledged without stigma or shame. Thanks, Stepfanie.

My long day of cooking earlier this week was the most I’ve done in a long time; it’s a summer of hands-off meals for me, which feels totally alright. But I do have a new recipe to share this week, as well as some summer appetizer inspiration to chat about. Till then, take good care.

xo

The post Weekend Reading, 7.29.18 appeared first on The Full Helping.

Living in California now for over 5 years, I've learned that most food produced here is just as good (if not better) than most any place else. California tomatoes, olive oil, wine, stone fruit, beans, and grains occupy a majority of our meals. However, and I've had arguments with people about this, the Midwest has the best sweet corn. Give me Illinois peaches & cream sweet corn any day.

Of course, I'm not so picky that I'll refuse California sweet corn. It's still delicious and I inevitably end up with an abundance (the $4/1 price is just too good). While I use it to make quite a few recipes during the season, I also like to save the kernels and cobs to make items I can use throughout the year.

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The post Saving the Season: 3-Ways with Sweet Corn appeared first on Naturally Ella.

Let’s talk about how to make a great vegetarian poke bowl. Poke is a much-loved, traditional, raw fish preparation, long popular in Hawaii. Fishermen would season bits of their catch, and snack on it while working. Poke (pronounced poh-kay) has exploded in popularity, well beyond Hawaii, in recent years. The version I’m posting today is for any of you who love the idea of poke or poke bowls, but don’t eat fish for whatever reason. Vegetarian poke bowls are particularly fantastic this time of year because they’re light, clean, filling but not heavy, You know?

Vegetarian Poke Bowl: The Components

I typically use a watermelon poke, a version of this sushi rice (but any favorite sushi rice / blend will do), and a host of other vibrant toppings. Here you see firm, organic tofu, sliced avocado, blanched asparagus, shaved watermelon radish, and micro sprouts. The bowl is drizzled, simply, with good soy sauce. And there’s a sprinkling of sesame seeds and scallions. The other topping I really crave, not pictured here, is a showering of crispy, fried shallots. 

Seasonal Variations

When it comes to toppings, what you see here is just a jumping off point. And I encourage you to play around with all the components. For example, you might trade in roasted squash cubes for the watermelon later in the year. And do roasted onions in place of scallions. Or, play around with the drizzle on top. For a quick poke bowl, I just do a soy sauce drizzle, but you could whip up something more complex. Have fun with it!

Although, it can be argued, a vegetarian poke bowl isn’t a real poke bowl, it’s a great meal just the same. Keep your eyes peeled for other inspiration as well. I love seeing the creative vegetarian and vegan poke bowls on menus at poke spots all over. Lots of ideas there that you might replicate in your own kitchens!

Continue reading How to Make a Great Vegetarian Poke Bowl on 101 Cookbooks