-
Fire Update
Today marks one month since the fire that changed our lives. It still doesn’t seem real that in a blink of an eye everything was turned upside down. The fire is still under investigation and the cause has yet to be released. We still haven’t been able to see if anything else is salvageable but we are hopefully that we can get that resolved by mid-July. In the coming weeks I am going to have a series of post showing the steps to rebuilding your kitchen. I’ve moved a lot in my life but starting our kitchen over from scratch is a lot more intense than you think it will be. I hope…
-
Drinking French
“When asked to name a French drink, people think of wine or pastis, but cocktails don’t instinctively come to mind. but in truth, many of the most sought-after cocktail ingredients are French, including cognac, Armagnac, Chartreuse, Lillet, eau-de-vie, and calvados, as well as champagne, Suze, Gran Marnier, elderflower liqueur, dry vermouth, Salers, and Cointreau, not to mention pastis, crème de menthe, crème de cacao, and crème de cassis, among many, many others,” David Lebovitz. Wow, I had never thought about how many cocktail ingredients are French. I love a good cocktail, if I am out at a bar I rarely order anything other than a cocktail. Drinking French provides you an at-home guide…
-
10 Cookbooks I’m Replacing
Since the fire I have been thinking about which cookbooks I want to replace and honestly, I want to replace all of them, however, I know that isn’t going to happen immediately. (To read more about the fire and what happened click here). Below is my list of the ten cookbooks I want to replace first. 1. The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Dinnertime – Comfort Classics, Freezer Food, 16-minute Meals, and Other Delicious Ways to Solve Supper Time and time again I find myself reaching for this cookbook. The recipes are easy to follow and I cannot get enough of the freezer meals. I love to keep my freezer stocked for those nights I…
-
Cooking Light Fresh Food Fast Weeknight Meals: Over 280 Incredible Supper Solutions
“These Test Kitchen approved recipes are tailor-made for hectic lifestyles and health-conscious families,” Editors of Cooking Light Magazine. We are all searching for those meals that are quick and healthy and most of all that our family will love. I have owned Cooking Light Fresh Food Fast Weeknight Meals: Over 280 Incredible Supper Solutions for years and have loved every recipe that I have made from it. Even though it is an older cookbook the recipes still hold up today. I love the variety in the recipes with the great shortcuts that help me save time when I need a quick meal. Before the fire I had marked about twenty more recipes I…
-
Rodney Scott’s World Of BBQ
“I like spreading the joy and sharing the love, and barbecue is my means of doing it,” Rodney Scott. When I saw that Rodney Scott’s World of BBQ cookbook was being released I immediately knew I wanted it. I live in an apartment and only have a communal gas grill so I ordered it in time to have it for my vacation to my parents house in Florida. They have a charcoal grill that is actually older than me! Rodney Scott’s World of BBQ doesn’t just teach you how to BBQ it also tells all about his life. I started reading it one night and I couldn’t put it down. In just a…
-
25 New Cookbooks for Summer 2021
Summer is a time of play – enjoying the outdoors and the sunshine. For me it is also a great time to play in the kitchen. I find in the summer I have a less strict schedule which allows me to try more recipes and cookbooks. The new cookbooks for this summer are already inspiring me on what I want to cook next. Since I lost all my cookbooks in the fire I am excited to restart my collection with some of these amazing cookbooks that are releasing this summer. June 1. Fortnum & Mason: Time for Tea By: Tom Parker Bowles Release Date: June 1, 2021 Click here to order Fortnum & Mason: Time…
-
A Cooking Curveball
On Monday, May 24th my life changed forever. My sister and I woke up around 5:50 a.m. to the fire alarm going off in our apartment building. We often have false alarms but we both still got up immediately. I opened the front door and the smell of smoke hit me instantly. We threw on street clothes, grabbed our wallets and got out. As we were grabbing our stuff two guys were going door to door yelling that the apartment next to us was on fire. They wouldn’t even let my sister put on her shoes when we left the apartment. We are so lucky that they cared enough to go door to…
-
Why I Love Cookbooks
I love cookbooks and have for a very long time. Why? I have learned how to cook by using cookbooks and still continue to learn through them today. Learning how to make fudge, chocolate chip cookies and snickerdoodles are some of my earliest memories as a child. We always used recipes – some from packaging and some from family recipe, it was my first exposure to recipes and cookbooks. As I got older I was normally around the kitchen when my Mom was making dinner but never paid much attention to the steps she was doing. When I was in college and moved out of the dorms I had to learn to cook…
-
The Tucci Table
“The dinner table is the anvil upon which we forge our relationships. Be they ties of family, of friendship, of new love or of old, it is a place where we share the events of our day, our feelings, our stories, our memories, and our hopes and promises for the future,” Stanley Tucci. One of my favorite movies is Julie & Julia, in which Stanley Tucci plays Julia Child’s husband, Paul. Having been a big fan of Stanley Tucci I decided to try out his second cookbook. The Tucci Table written by Stanley Tucci and his wife Felicity Blunt, offers a great variety of family inspired recipes. I love how they mixed his…
-
Grilled Chicken Bruschetta
Chicken is something that I cook a lot of in my house. I find that I am always searching for a new recipe or technique to try to keep my meals interesting. Years ago I stumbled across a Cooking Light recipe for grilled chicken bruschetta. Since then I have made it many times and adapted it to what I love. When I serve this chicken bruschetta I almost always make parmesan couscous (from the box mix – so easy). I love to put some of the bruschetta mixture on top of the couscous. This recipe easily serves four people and if your tomatoes are giant, as mine where this past week, you can…
