I'm pretty much Donna Reed.

On the menu: jalapeño raspberry salmon, Brussels sprouts, and tomato avocado salad.

I know many of you who know me well may be raising an eyebrow since you know that DK was in town mere hours earlier and I have been known to pass her creations off as my own…but this dinner was so easy I was able to pull it off solo! (ok, fine.  Greg chopped a few things.  Big whoop.)

I have to tell you, the true hero of the evening was the Emily G’s Jam of Love Jalapeño Raspberry Jam we found at the Peachtree Road Farmer’s Market!  

Easy peasy: I just threw a couple of salmon fillets in the oven for about 10 minutes at 375 degrees, took them out to spread a dollop of this amazingness on the top of each, and popped them back in the oven for another 5 minutes or so while the jam caramelized and worked its magic.   DELICIOUS.

Here’s the Q+DD on EGJoL: DK and I got the full story from a very adorable Emily (though not THE Emily) on Saturday at the Farmer’s Market.  Local to Dunwoody, Emily G’s jam is not mass-produced, but made in small batches and hand-poured into the cutest jar you have ever seen!
They use the freshest, most seasonable ingredients available and patronize local Georgia farms whenever possible. The jams are all-natural and Emily promises you will “taste the love in every jar!”

At $8 a jar, I wish I had picked up a few more flavors. Among their most popular: Jalapeno Raspberry, Blueberry, Triple Berry, Tipsy Onion + Garlic and Roasted Red Pepper. I also tried the Chipotle Strawberry and it knocked my socks off.

I just had no idea jam was so versatile! The Emily G’s website has LOTS of recipes for each of their jams. DK purchased a jar of the tomato jam for use on BLTs, scallops, and meatloaf.  Bonus: lots of Atlanta restaurants are using EGJoL in their menus, witness by clicking here!

I’m in LOVE!  I’m a believer! Jalapeño Raspberry is my new JAM!  (Pun intended.)

Enjoy!

xx, L

P.S. Complete the meal:
1.    Salad: SO simple, SO delicious:  Romaine lettuce.  Halved grape tomatoes.  Chopped avocado.  Fresh lemon juice.  Olive oil.  Salt + pepper.  Fin.
2.    Brussels sprouts: (for the record, I was going to do asparagus.  But they were so teeny I made a game-time decision for the BS.  So glad I did because I love them and now I believe Greg is now a Brussels sprouts convert!)   I just halve ‘em, toss ‘em in a little e.v.o.o., and throw them on a tin-foiled and Pam-ed cookie sheet with a little salt and pepper and pop ‘em in the oven at 375 for 20 minutes or so.  (Sometimes I’ll dice a green apple and throw it in there for a little variety.)
3.    Bodega Norton 2007 Malbec.  (ok, ok and half a bottle of Trader Joe’s Two Buck Chuck Shiraz.)

I started eating SS on the regular while I was in college.  When you comb out the insides of the squash after you cook it, it comes out in fine strands that resemble spaghetti.  SS is relatively tasteless and very filling, just like pasta, but it’s a much healthier substitute.

Cooking Instructions for Spaghetti Squash:

(You can bake, boil or slow cook SS, but I prefer to just microwave it.) 

- Cut squash in half lengthwise and remove seeds.
- Place squash cut sides up in a microwave dish with 1/4 cup water.
- Cover squash with plastic wrap.
- Cook on high for 10 – 12 minutes, depending squash size.
- (Add more cooking time if necessary.)
- Let stand covered for 5 minutes.
- Use a folk to comb out the strands, like so…

You can incorporate spaghetti squash into a variety of dishes, but my preference is for it to be a marinara sauce vehicle.

In my experience, spaghetti squash is good for about two – three days (tops) after you cook it.  I usually only cook half of the squash at a time and then Tupperware-up the remains.

Spaghetti squash is available year-round in most grocery stores.   It really is a dieter’s dream, as a four-ounce serving of SS only has about 37 calories.  Plus, lugging the 4 – 8 pound squash from the grocery into your house is a workout in itself.

xx, L

(I know…I know…where was I raised?  The country?  A barn?)  I guess maybe if that was the case, I would have already had my fill of deviled eggs…  I tried them for the first time during lunch yesterday with colleagues at Bocado.  And, I thought that they were soooooooo delicious!  (Seriously, why have I not tried these until now??)

deviled eggs @ bocado

The DEs at Bocado had very fluffy + creamy + flavorful yokes.  When I called Slick to tell him that I had just tried my very first one and loved it, he told me that he personally prefers them when they aren’t so fluffy + creamy.  Whatever.  These babies tasted loaded up with mayo (which I loved!) - and I wanted MORE!  So much so, in fact, that I looked up DE recipes all night.

This one was my favorite: http://snipurl.com/xg0z1

I also really liked these two…

Sun-Dried Tomato + Chive Deviled Eggs: http://snipurl.com/xg10b

Bacon Horseradish Deviled Eggs: http://snipurl.com/xg11b

Yummmmmmm!! 

inside bocado

Also worth mentioning: On the Blissful Glutton’s advice, I tried the Bocado hamburger + french fries for my lunch entree.  They were both were absolutely amazing!!  The hamburger was very similar to H+F’s mouthwatering 10:00 p.m. burger w/ its mixture of meats + double patties…but the fries!  OH, THE FRIES!  They were particularly incredible!  Not too greasy + tasted like soft baby potatoes.  (It was v. hard for me to share a bowl of them with my colleagues.)  Extremely hard. 

bocado burg

Thanks, BG for the excellent recommendation! 

I will definitely be back at Bocado soon for more deviled eggs, burgs – and to test out their creative tapas list!

xx, L

Bocado
887 Howell Mill Road
Atlanta, GA  30318
404.704.5850
www.bocadoatlanta.com

stac + me

Stacy is a very intelligent woman and I’m confident that she can handle v. complicated recipes, but this one is honestly a no-brainer.  So easy, in fact, I whipped it up for Slick on Tuesday evening in all of 20 minutes.  And, these aren’t Rachael Ray minutes either (30 minutes actually = 1.5 hours)…  Now, I am the most popular person @ Slick’s office.  He brought the leftovers to work on Wednesday, and his colleagues loved the recipe as much as Slick, Stacy and I did.

Here’s the Q+DD on Stacy’s Candy Cookie Bars:

Ingredients

- Largest roll of choco. chip cookie dough you can find…
           (Seriously, it looks like it’s on steroids.)
- 3 regular size Heath bars
- 3 regular size candy bars of your choice

Directions

1- Pull out all the items you need onto your kitchen counter.  This recipe takes no time at all, and you’ll want to have everything within an arm’s reach. 

2- Spray a 9 x 13 Pyrex with Pam.  Evenly spread the choco. chip cookie dough on the bottom of the Pyrex.

3- Cook the dough for the appropriate time (around 13 minutes or so).  While the dough is cooking, begin preparing the Heath bars.

4- Put Heath bars into a Ziploc bag and use a pounder to chop them up into tiny pieces. (Feel free to use a hammer, like me, if you don’t own a pounder…)

5- TADA!

6- Unwrap your candy bars.  I used Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, a Snicker’s bar and Twix. 

7- Use a sharp knife to cut the candy bars into small 1/4 inch slices.

8- When the dough is finished cooking, randomly place slices of  the candy bars into the dough.  Press down a little to make sure that they are not just sitting on top of the dough.  Then, put the dough back into the oven for 5-6 minutes.

9- Take the dough out of the oven and garnish the top of it with the Heath bar pieces.

10- Let it sit for about 10 minutes.  Cut into bars + enjoy!

Stacy’s Candy Cookie Bars are perfect as a delicious afterthought or a last minute dessert for pretty much any occasion.  Julia Child might roll over in her grave if she ever caught wind of this recipe, but I promise that the bars look and taste like you’ve been in the kitchen for hours!  Fact.

Bon appetit!

xx, L

slick's crock pot

Anyway, he cooked dinner for me the other night and it was delicious – pretty easy to make too.  He made a ton of pulled pork – literally a ton – so much, in fact, that we are still eating away at it almost four days later.  He’s been a total whiz in the kitchen lately! 

what's cookin' good lookin'?

I felt inspired by the crock pot + Slick’s newfound interest in cooking, so I went online to look up some other easy recipes of things we could slowly cook over the eight(+) hours we’re at work and I found these:

1- Chicken + Dumplings: http://bit.ly/bsVh5U
2- Beef Bourguignon: http://bit.ly/YIsW0  (Harness your inner Julia Child!)
3- Creme Brulee: http://bit.ly/9BAdgA
4- BBQ Pulled Pork: http://bit.ly/cQ5Nw2  (Similar to what Slick made…)
5- Spinach + Cheese Dip: http://bit.ly/bLpiov

I’m convinced that a crock pot is God’s gift to the working woman (or man, obv.) – you get what I’m saying.  I love that there is a timer on it, too, so that if you are gone for longer than eight hours, it just turns itself off.  Brilliant.  I kind of want to slow cook everything now… 

You can even make bread in a slow cooker: http://bit.ly/bvz1Dc  Amazing!  Who would have thunk it?!

AND – Wait for it…Wait for it…  Yes – got it!! 

Crock Pot Pizza (Pasta): http://bit.ly/dw0zOl = heaven!  I just love carbs (sigh)…

yes please!

God Bless the Crock Pot!  Mmmmmmmmmm!

xx, L

INGREDENTS:

- 1 can (14-1/2 oz.) Italian-style diced tomatoes, undrained
- 1-1/4 cups KRAFT Shredded Low-Moisture Part-Skim Mozzarella Cheese, divided
- 1/4 cup chopped basil
- 1 pkg. (6 oz.) STOVE TOP Stuffing Mix for Chicken
- 8 small boneless skinless chicken breasts halves (2 lbs.)
- 1/3 cup KRAFT Roasted Red Pepper Italian with Parmesan Dressing

DIRECTIONS:

Mix tomatoes, 1/2 cup of cheese and basil in a medium bowl.  Add stuffing mix; stir just until moistened.

Place chicken breasts on a cutting board.  Spread chicken with the stuffing mixture. 

Starting at the narrow end of the chicken, tightly roll up each breast.  Place the chicken, seam-side down, in a 9×13-inch baking dish.  Drizzle with dressing.

Bake 40 minutes on 350 degrees or until the chicken is done (165 degrees).  Sprinkle with the remaining cheese and bake five more minutes or until the cheese is melted.  

voila!

Cool – serve – ENJOY!!

I hope it’s as big of a crowd pleaser for you as it’s been for me! 

xx, L

Yadda yadda yadda…

However, I recognize that there are times in which cooking is necessary and a smart girl always has a few tricks in her arsenal. For instance, last week was The Ginger’s birthday and and excellent excuse for my famous cupcakes!

Plus, making cupcakes is a RIOT:

Funfetti!

I’m hesitant to give away all my tricks of the trade, but doctoring up a cake mix is pretty darn simple. If I can do it, you can, too! (If you’re a super cook, you can just skip this post, because I’m going to write it r.e.a.l.l.y. simple for the culinarily challenged…like myself.)

Here’s what you need:

2 boxes yellow cake mix (I like Duncan Heins)
6 eggs
2 sticks (unsalted) butter
2 packages vanilla pudding mix
1 tub of milk chocolate frosting
1 tub of vanilla frosting
2c sour cream
Coarsely ground sea salt
Vanilla extract
Spatula
Muffin tins
Muffin cups
Hand-held mixer (I know, I couldn’t believe I had one, either!)

Suggested accoutrements:
Some type of round candy: I like the salted caramel balls by Choxie…found at Target…IF you can manage NOT to eat them all before you ice and decorate your cupcakes
Black and white sprinkles (separate)
Teeny tiny funnel

Ok, then it’s easy-squeezy. I do this in 2 batches.

1. Combine 1 box of cake mix, 1 stick of softened butter, 3 eggs, 1 package of pudding mix, 1c sour cream and a dash of vanilla extract, mix well and fill the muffin cups in your muffin tins about 3/4 full

(The box says it will make 24 cupcakes, but what they don’t mention that they will be weeny cupcakes. Fill ‘em fuller and each recipe will only make about 18 or so. Particularly if you, um, “taste” the batter. A lot. Don’t judge me.)

2. Bake according to the instructions on the box.

3. Repeat and let all cupcakes cool on cooking racks (I can’t believe I had these, either.) You’ll have about 32 nice, big cupcakes.

4. While the cupcakes are baking/cooling, spoon your chocolate and vanilla icing into two separate bowls. To each: add a tablespoon or so vanilla extract and a few grinds of sea salt. Make sure you taste along the way, so it doesn’t get too vanilla-y or, yuck, too salty. But ton’t be shy, either. The salt is perfect for cutting the supersweet frosting (Thanks to Cari of Sugar Sugar for the tip!)

5. Once the cupcakes have cooled, ice 1/2 with chocolate and 1/2 with vanilla. Then I decorate like this:

• 6 chocolate frosting with white chocolate round candy on top
• 6 chocolate frosting with white sprinkles JUST in the middle of the cupcake (use the funnel)
• 6 vanilla frosting with chocolate round candy on top
• 6 vanilla frosting with chocolate sprinkles on top

Then I arranged them in my double-decker cupcake caddy (also found at Target) and voilà!

BONUS: You’ll have about 8 extra cupcakes. Throw a couple of those bad boys in some Tupperware and a nice little note and BAM! Perfect “just because” gifty-gift for doormen, fabulous coworkers, neighbors, etc. Luckily I had some hot pink sprinkles on hand, perfect for Kindredly’s birthday last week!

I may not be a domestic goddess…
…but, as DK says, “fake it till you make it!”

xx, LK

“GOOD PERSONALITY” DIP

Ingredients:

- 2 cans of white shoepeg corn – drained

- 2 cans of black beans – drained and rinsed

- 6-8 ounces of feta cheese

- bunch of green chives – chopped (obviously i’m not a fantastic chopper…)

- 1 cup of sugar
- 1 cup of apple cider vinegar
- 1 cup of olive or canola oil

Directions:

Mix ingredients together and chill.  Drain wet ingredients before serving.  Serve with chips or crackers – my preference is Rosemary + Olive Oil Triskets.  Cooking just doesn’t get much simpler than this!

Good Personality Dip! VIOLA!

There’s nothing like a yummy dip to go along with a good football game!  Really – sports are mostly about the food anyway…  And, I mean that from the very bottom of my Texas-Longhorn-Dallas-Cowboy-loving heart.

Enjoy!

xx, L

Bonus! As I am prone to gross excess, of course I made way too many…but waste not want not – they’ve been just perfect for hostess gifts and holiday remembrances for my dry cleaner, doggie daycare, etc.!

I can do this, you can too.  It was very easy.

Here’s the Q+DD on making 2lbs worth of candied pecans:

Ingredients:
4 egg whites
1tbsp water
1tbsp vanilla extract
2lbs pecan halves
2 c. white sugar
1.5 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon

Preheat your oven to 250.  Be sure you are not storing shoes or sweaters in oven before doing so. Grease 2 baking sheets.

In one big bowl whip the wet stuff (egg whites, water, vanilla) with a fork until it’s frothy.  In another big bowl mix the dry stuff (everything else)

Then, it’s easy-peasy. Dump the pecans into the egg mixture and use a fork to stir to coat them completely.  Then transfer them into the bowl with the sugar mixture and use a fork to stir to coat completely in the sugar.  Spread them onto your greased cookie sheets and pop those suckers in the oven.

Bake for 1 hour stirring every 15 minutes and bada-bing bada-boom!  You’re done.  Let them cool and transfer them to Tupperware or whatever you’re giving them in.  My mom suggested long cellophane bags with colorful ribbon, and that would have been lovely, but since we have the Container Store here in the A, I opted for these little windowed gift boxes:

I used white raffia and black magic marker for my holiday greeting, but if you prefer something a little more festive you could use whatever you want.  Obviously.

I’m psyched that they are so easy to make because they’ve been a total crowd-pleaser and I think they’d be really cute in a bowl for guests in your home!  The hardest part is keeping your hands off them. Fact.

Happy holidays, y’all!

xx, L

"hello, again!"

You may recall Adele from such posts as Cooking w/ L+L – Guilt-Free Key Lime Pie.  She’s a fabulous cook and just happens to be my mother.  Adele’s talented at whipping up all kinds of culinary deliciousness, but she’s especially outstanding when it comes to desserts.  In fact, I made her Brownie S’mores for Slick’s family’s Thanksgiving Cookie Competition and won 3rd place!  (1st and 2nd were nearly impossible to beat…)

like mother, like daughter? (fingers crossed!)

Brownie S’mores are incredibly easy to prepare and are excellent comfort food when it’s chilly outside.  They even make for a yummy hostess gift for all those holiday parties you’ll be attending over the next few weeks.  You’ll have people screaming for s’more!!

(Fine, that was lame…)

Here’s the Q+DD on Adele’s Brownie S’mores:

1 package of Duncan Hines fudge brownie mix + associates items (eggs, oil, etc.)
1/2 cup of chocolate chips
1 cup of mini-marshmallows
6 Honey Maid graham cracker cookie rectangles in the “honey” flavor  

Directions:

Cook brownies in a 9×13 glass pan according to the instructions to make “fudgy” brownies – not “cake” brownies.  Under-cook brownies by five minutes.  Take the brownies out of the over and evenly sprinkle on the chocolate chips.  Then, evenly sprinkle on the mini-marshmallows.  Put brownies back into the oven and cook for the remaining five minutes.  You will want to prepare the graham crackers while the brownies are cooking.  One rectangular graham cracker will break into four smaller pieces along the perforated lines on the cookie.  The graham crackers break easily, so I suggest using a very sharp knife to carefully cut them.  Cut between 20 – 24 small rectangles total. 

Once the brownies are cooked, quickly take them out of the oven and place on/ push down the graham cracker rectangles onto the marshmallows.  Be sure and place them onto the marshmallows a little spread out as this will make the brownies easier to cut when they are cooled.  I suggest cooling over night.  Once completely cooled, gently cut the brownies using a plastic knife (tends to work better for me than a regular knife as the marshmallows are difficult to cut).  Brownie S’mores are supposed to look a little messy, so it is okay if they aren’t cut perfectly.

voila!

They are best served with a glass of soy or regular milk.  Just like the ones we made at camp minus the fire minus bugs minus 104 degree Texas heat plus brownies!  Eat and enjoy! 

Happy cooking!  (Thanks, Mom!) 

xx, L