Are bonfires a summer thing or a fall thing? I always picture bright sunny days followed by a bonfire, but it never really gets cool enough in the summer to enjoy sitting by a fire. We had what I was tempted to call the “last bonfire of the summer” on Friday, but it was also the first really enjoyable fire. The kind where you need to huddle close to it to stay toasty (and I didn’t see even one mosquito!). So, I’ve decided bonfires are a fall thing and declare that the first bonfire of the fall season. Let’s just hope it doesn’t snow next weekend so we can have another. Chili is another thing I get confused about — when it chili season?! Chili cook-offs are in the summer,...
Best part about our trip to Oklahoma a couple weeks ago? Truffled pizza. Is that okay to say? Not like Josh’s family or anything. The pizza. For sure. And given the response I got on Instagram when I posted it, you all were totally interested, too. Josh and I are truffle obsessed. I drizzle truffle oil on almost everything and always brush my pizza crust with truffle oil. Always, always, always. And I have to get triple truffle waffle fries from The Peasantry every time I’m in Chicago. And we would wander into every vaguely kitchen-y store looking for truffle salt (finally found some in Traverse City!). So naturally, we can’t see a pizza with truffle in the name and pass it by. There’s no actual truffle pieces on this...
My computer said it’s going to restart in 15 minutes, and I’m taking that as a challenge to hammer out this post in record speed. Feel free to mock any terrible grammar/spelling/crazy word talk. My day has been so crammed full of stuff, that I’m sitting down for basically the first time since getting home (writing this around 9:30 pm on Tuesday). You know when you have SO much free time that you’re begging everyone for something to do and then everyone slams you with stuff at once? Dinners like these nachos are a MUST on busy nights. Shred up some tempeh, mix with BBQ sauce, layer on chips, bake. Does it get any easier? Well, really it does. When I was painstakingly shredding the tempeh the first time I made these,...
Despite my best efforts, fruit continues to not be one of Josh’s favorite things. Or one of my favorite things, for that matter. The only sure fire way to make sure that fruit gets devoured is to have dried fruit on hand (or mixed into our baked goods ;-)). Something magical happens to fruit when you suck out all the moisture — and that magic is probably that the sugary goodness is concentrated into a smaller spot, but let’s pretend it’s real magic. The Recipe Redux theme this month was “Get Your Dehydrator On”. It just so happens that I have 99 kitchen appliances, but a dehydrator ain’t one. Next best thing: buy some dehydrated goodness at the store and mix it into some scones. Anyone else think fall = scones? It...
As everyone gets super into football, I mostly get upset at the idea that a game might run long and cut off one of my favorite shows. Or that people will be talking about it in the hallway and look at me with disdain because I can’t add anything to the conversation (and that I actually run from those conversations). My only way to fit in during these dark days is by making pizza. So, so much pizza. I had the painful task of making a million kinds of pizza while I was working out an amazing whole wheat pizza dough, so not even breakfast was safe from the reaches of pizza. I’ve made a lot of breakfast pizzas in my life and usually use scrambled eggs, but after making baked...
With the exception of biscuits and gravy, I don’t remember loving gravy as much when I was a meat-eating-child as I do now. My answer to everything is pretty much just “smother it in gravy” and I’m honestly okay with that. I more or less blame the Everyday Mushroom Gravy from Everyday Happy Herbivore for triggering this need for gravy, though my gravy recipe has evolved pretty far from that jumping off point. Well, not too far, because it’s still loaded with mushroom. Is there anything better than mushrooms? <– Don’t answer that, because the answer is no. Unless it’s cake. This recipe is a little different than most mushroom gravies because I wanted it smooth and creamy (and they usually have chunks of mushrooms in them, in case you’ve never had...
