Tag: The Kitchen

Make This Now: New Summer Favorites

LaurenLeave a comment

Hi, hi!  I’m currently in a stage where I only want to try new recipes and that’s okay.  Old favorites can wait till I feel inspired to make them again — lookin at you, Summer Squash and Basil Pasta! — and in the meantime, I’ll be delighting in burrito bowls, grilled chicken, punchy salad dressings, creamy desserts and elevated BLTs.  I really hope you find something new to try here and feel as inspired by it as I did!

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Spicy Black Bean Burrito Bowls with Cashew + Hemp Seed Chipotle Sauce

If you have black beans already cooked and waiting in the freezer (or heck, just a can of beans in the pantry), this recipe is such a breeze to make!  We took it up a notch by making Cilantro-Lime Rice and assembled with the beans, corn, salsa, cabbage slaw, cilantro, avocado and most importantly, THAT CHIPOTLE SAUCE, this was damn delicious.  I worship at the shrine of Illegal Pete’s but at first bite, I was like “Illegal Pete’s who?”  It was that good!

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Peruvian-Style Spatchcock Chicken with Creamy Cilantro Sauce

I pledge allegiance to the recipes of Jeff Mauro!  The directions for this chicken tell you how to do it in the oven but look, the last thing I need in my air conditioner-less home, is to have the oven on for an hour so we made this on the grill — just put the cast-iron straight on there — and it worked perfectly!  Also, it tasted incredible.  Super juicy, super flavorful and really extra good dipped in that cilantro sauce.

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Corn & Chickpea Bowl with Miso-Jalapeño Tahini

Not to dismiss this salad, because it is very good, but the shining star here is the miso-jalapeño tahini dressing.  It’s flavor-packed, creamy, and very ginger-forward.  So if you’re not that person just straight eating the pile of fresh ginger that comes with your sushi, maybe this isn’t for you.  But I AM that person, so I found this dressing to be just incredible.  It’s such a bold and bright note to contrast with the rich goat cheese and avocado in this salad and Joey and I both really really loved it, so we hope you do too!

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No-Churn Ice Cream

Raise your hand if your house is tiny and you just do not have room for yet another kitchen appliance.  I am raising my hand high.  Even though an ice cream maker sounds fun, it’s really a question of where I’m going to store it.  So, when I saw a recipe for no-churn ice cream, I was VERY VERY EXCITED.  I didn’t even know this was an option.  Turns out, you just have to make some whipped cream, fold it into some sweetened condensed milk, toss in some mix-in and let the whole thing chill for a few hours and you are rewarded with thee absolute creamiest ice cream I’ve EVER tasted.  The recipe post includes lots of flavor combination suggestions but I’m here to tell you mini chocolate chips and peppermint extract is DELIGHTFUL.

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Egg-in-a-Nest BLT Sandwich

I’m hesitant to share this recipe because, well, it’s a BLT.  But it’s better than a BLT because there’s also an egg cooked into the bread!  What a perfect mashup!  Also, you basically make a mayo-bacon guacamole to spread on the bread and it tastes pretty incredible.  Joey and I were very impressed by what seemed like a quick and easy dinner but ended up tasting like something special.  Also, I was thisclose to buying regular white bread instead of sourdough but am so glad I didn’t because it tasted extra good!

Happy Friday!

Weekend Things

Lauren2 Comments

So out with June and in with July!  This month is a celebratory one, what with a wedding, 4th of July, birthdays galore (including mine!) and just that peak summer spirit going on.  I’m all for it!  We had no plans for Friday and I’m not going to lie, I was VERY into the idea of cooking dinner at home, vegging out on the couch and probably falling asleep early.  We did all of that and I loved every second!

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Orzo Salad from The Kitchen made thee biggest bowl of food and we will have leftovers forever!

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Saturday started with a trip to the Farmers’ Market but I’m happy to report we finally invested in bike helmets so our brains were nice and safe on the way there.  Shh, don’t think about how many times I told you we biked someplace now that you know we weren’t wearing helmets till now.  We grabbed breakfast tacos at a stand in the market and I was NOT impressed.  But I went home with peaches and shishitos and feel only happiness about that!!!

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The rest of the day was spent preparing for and enjoying (or if you’re my mom and sister, SUFFERING THROUGH) the Shakespeare Festival.  Friday was in the 90s, Sunday was in the 90s and Saturday was seriously in the 60s.  WHY?!  I think my sister referred to my insistence that we still picnic before the play as inflexibility, but I’m calling it perseverance, okay?  We had a spread of sausage, cheese, crackers, dates, figs, cherries, shrimp, potstickers, marcona almonds and olives that was only slightly excessive for three people.  And we maybe ate our macarons in the car because we needed a quick warm up before sitting outside for 2+ hours.

I seriously loved the production of Love’s Labour’s Lost but my sister’s review was “just a bunch of old men spitting” (and okay, all the male actors did seem to be emitting a bit too much spray while delivering their lines) and my mom thought it was dull.  To each their own!

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And now, a representation of Sunday via every meal I ate.  Ha!  We made our very favorite egg-free French toast with miso-date butter, using some challah we bought at the Farmers’ Market and it was amazing!  Between that and my lunch salad, I got my hair cut and returned a bunch of things at the mall, then my parents came over to pick up Andi.  They’re watching him for a couple of days while we stay in Lyons for Bobby and Becca’s wedding and Joey and I very dramatically fake cried about letting go of him.  Also, I took my dad to American Cultures to fill up growlers of kombucha and I was very happy to hear how much he liked the place!

Got a mani/pedi later on and then, since my hair was nice and curled, my nails were pretty and pink and it felt like holiday weekend time, we went out to dinner at Bamboo Sushi.  They have a lovely shaded patio out back and is there anything better than fresh sushi on a hot summer evening?  I say no.   The Green Machine is a veggie roll but it is seriously my favorite ever.  Between Cart-Driver last Sunday and Bamboo Sushi this Sunday, I could get used to this chill Sunday dinner out thing ♥  Last but not least, major shout out to Joey, who whipped the backyard into shape this weekend so it feels like our little oasis again.  I am so very thankful for his hard work!