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I could pretend I’m super sophisticated and have extensive, meaningful knowledge about wine but that would be a complete farce. I’d say I’m just a step or two above Michael Scott, really. Some may turn their noses up at Riesling because it is on the sweeter side of whites, it’s all good. More for me! Really though, Riesling is my personal favorite and when I came across
Did you all have a good weekend? Mine was full to the brim with good things. Lots of fun time with the kids, nice weather for playing outside, a beautiful wedding of a friend of many years, and time cooking with some other great friends. Oh, and there was lots of great food, including this salad. It was definitely a highlight, even amongst all that goodness. So much so that I couldn’t w
When the first quart of spring strawberries arrived in our produce delivery bin a few weeks ago, Andrew immediately asked if we could bake something with them. I asked what he had in mind and after only a moment’s hesitation, he declared, “Strawberry doughnuts.” This caught me off guard. Doughnuts are a very rare occurrence in our house and the kid has probably had less than t
Cheesecake has long been one of my very favorite desserts. That rich and creamy filling atop a buttery graham cracker crust. Mmm, mmm good. Add caramel and toffee into the mix and we’ve definitely entered into the realm of irresistible. Let’s be honest – caramel sauce can give most any dessert an instant upgrade. Ben doesn’t have nearly the sweet tooth that I do, but h
Despite my best efforts, I fell into some sort of weird breakfast rut the past month or so. Nothing has sounded particularly good to me…I think in part due to the change in the weather. So many of the dishes I loved through winter are less appealing now. That coupled with having about two minutes available for eating breakfast each morning has led to an awful lot of smoothies and sad bana
Not too long ago, I mentioned my mini love affair with Taste Café in Broad Ripple. Well, it really hasn’t subsided. I meet up with friends, or coax coworkers to venture outside of a one mile radius for lunch, and whenever I do, we end up at Taste. The menu is extensive and they always have tons of great specials, but ever since trying their roasted salmon sandwich, it has been tough for m
With Mother’s Day coming up this weekend, I thought I’d give you all a little reminder as well as a few suggestions of things you to make for your mom. It goes without saying that I often express my love through the preparing of food for my family and friends, and I have no doubt that if my mom were still here today, I would absolutely be planning a spectacular meal to share with her.
It may be cliché, but I couldn’t resist the opportunity to make churros in time for Cince de Mayo. Over the past year or so, I’ve become slightly enamored with them thanks to the fantastic churros at XOCO, one of Rick Bayless’ restaurants in Chicago. Really, fantastic isn’t an adequate word to describe them. They deserve their own superlative. A simple piece of fried do
1. At the beginning of the month, we took a family road trip to Atlanta to visit my brother and his fiancee, as well as my friend Josie! We couldn’t resist a trip to the Georgia Aquarium, and I loved this pic of Caroline with the jellies! 2. I posted a picture of this banana toast on my annieseats Instagram feed and one follower gave the best caption EVER: “Sad banana is sad.”
It’s the beginning of the week. The time when we start out with all our high expectations and all the best intentions. To work out every day, to eat good-for-you foods all week long, to organize every digital file on your computer into a fabulously streamlined system, etc. etc. Whatever your goals for the week may be, starting things off with a hefty dose of leafy greens that also happens
I’ve talked about my family many, many times on here, so if you’ve read for any length of time, you may have discerned that I have two pretty fantastic younger brothers. Even though they are most definitely adults, I will always think of them as my baby brothers. As much as I adore them now, it wasn’t always so. They are very close in age to each other, but several years young
For me, a good muffin for breakfast never gets old. Pumpkin, chocolate, lemon poppy seed, and of course, every type of berry we can get our hands on. Though many berries can be easily swapped out in muffin recipes, to me strawberries just aren’t one of them. Strawberries contain a lot more juice than other berries and release a lot of liquid during cooking. As a result, baked goods with
Today I’m dusting off an old recipe from the archives. One with an old photo that looked like…well, a humongous pile of chicken salad that had received the tilt treatment. (Looking back through old photos is equal parts cringe-inducing and hysterically funny.) But good photo or bad, it really doesn’t matter. This is my very favorite chicken salad recipe and in fact, it’
Happy Monday to all of you, and it is a happy day indeed because it is one of my favorite days of the year – Earth Day! If you’ve been reading the blog a while you may have gathered that at times I can be a bit of an eco-nut. This mentality was engrained in me from an early age, and every year around this time I try to evaluate our lifestyle and habits, recognizing what good things w
I love when one simple technique can elevate a recipe that is already great to something even better. We already have a basic turkey burger that we love, but recently we tried this version from Josie and we were sold. In a genius technique, this method involves grinding up dried porcini mushrooms to a powder and coating the burger patties with the mushroom mixture before cooking. It adds a nice
In general I avoid labeling any recipe as “the best”, “the ultimate”, etc. for a couple of reasons. First off, I of course haven’t tried every type of (whatever it is), so who am I to deem it number one? Second, I fully believe there are plenty of fantastic recipes out there for just about any food you can imagine, so it’s likely that more than one of them are
I promise I’ll quit yammering on about this soon but seriously, my little girl is growing up in the blink of an eye! She turned two just a couple of weeks ago and I swear, it’s as though some switch has been flipped over to big girl. The last traces of baby are slipping away. In yet another change to this effect, she moved up into the next age group class at daycare. I’m a bi
As I mentioned recently, I’ve been on a home organization/home decoration kick since the calendar flipped to January. We’ve been in our house for nearly four years now, but it’s all the stuff I’ve been doing the last several months that has made it really look and feel like us. It would come as a surprise to no one that I’m incredibly particular about most things, a
What do you love best about the salad you see here? For most people, I’m sure the answer would be the bacon. While I do like the bacon (definite progress from a few years ago), I am all about the hard boiled eggs. I love them. (Don’t even get me started on deviled eggs. They are my kryptonite. Gah!) But aside from my love of eggs, I love this salad overall. The components just
1. To start out the month of March, I finished up my last week of carrying the call pager of residency. Handing it off for the last time was amazing. 2. At work last month, I had the opportunity to culture my own cells and then visualize and karyotype my own chromosomes. It was so cool! 3. I got a flat tire on my car one evening that could only be fixed at the dealership while they ordered the n
When I planned the menu for Caroline’s birthday party, these bars were something of an afterthought. They helped round out the dessert portion of the menu, adding another berry treat for our little berry fiend. I suspected they would be good but oh.my.gosh, people, these were definitely the highlight of the spread. The buttery, crumbly crust with a hint of lemon and the amazing blackberry
Somehow it seems time has gone and played its tricks again, and our precious baby girl is no longer a baby at all. Suddenly, she’s a big girl. A big two year old(!) with a very big personality. It took some time for me to settle on a fitting theme for her party, but eventually I tried to just think about what she likes best. Of course as a two year old, she doesn’t have a great man
Here’s a peek at what I’ve been loving in March/early April! Just a few quick brushes with warmer weather have made me ever so anxious for spring and summer wardrobe updates. This J.Crew maxi dress was love at first sight/instant purchase for me. Last summer I bought one maxi dress from Target and I wore it all the time, so I know this will be a staple piece for me very soon. I boug
Throughout my childhood, our pantry had a near constant supply of various boxed snack cakes. Dad did an incredible job cooking for us practically every single night, but when it came to dessert, it was usually an ice cream sandwich or a snack cake. He generally rotated the supply between a chocolatey version, the zebra striped version, and occasional others, but it was always clear which was his
When I first began learning to cook, back in my college apartment with a couple of random cookbooks and a few recipes printed from the interwebs, I was aaaallll about pasta. I’d venture a guess that pasta was one of the first foods many of us prepared beyond cereal or popcorn. Plus, I knew I loved it. Who doesn’t love pasta? As my interest in cooking has grown, I’ve steered a
Soup, stew or chili or some kind is on our menu at least once weekly from the months of October through March. As much as I wish soup weren’t March-appropriate fare, it always is, as we are reminded this week. But as often as I serve soup, it can be challenging to keep accompaniments interesting. A salad and/or a hunk of French bread is typically our go-to choice, but recently I was feeli
I’m giving you this recipe just before the weekend for a reason. I think it’s important to start the weekend out with a lovely kind of breakfast, and these banana scones fit that description perfectly. They have the warm, comforting flavor of banana bread but the breakfast cred of a scone. And let’s not forget the browned butter glaze on top, which I’m convinced makes pr
Most of the time I have no problem eating a healthy diet. But, I’m still human, and some days I come home exhausted wanting only grilled cheese-mac and cheese-cheese pizza-cheese anything. On those same days, I usually do all sorts of mental backbends and end up convincing myself that making something healthy will take too much time or energy. (This, even despite the fact that I’ve
I’m not typically one to be intimidated in the kitchen, or to shy away from a challenge, but one thing that has long intimidated me is dealing with fresh coconut. I’ve looked longingly at the gorgeous fresh coconut curls atop pretty cookies, cakes, pies and more in magazines and cookbooks and finally I decided enough was enough. It was time to figure this out. As with so many things
My brother’s girlfriend totally rocks. She is super fun, as sweet as can be, smart, loving, incredibly gorgeous… She goes with me to Britney Spears concerts. She is my perfect teammate for Wii Pictionary (what what?!) And to top it off, she is a fellow brownie lover who really, truly loves brownies as much as I do. Her birthday was in early March and obviously brownie something or
It’s 3.14, people, and you know what that means. It’s Pi Day! It’s the one food holiday I make sure to celebrate each year. Sure, most of us make pies for Thanksgiving, but those tend to be the classics – pumpkin, pecan, etc. I like Pi Day because it gives me a chance to bake a new pie I haven’t tried yet, and the very date on the calendar is a perfectly legit rea
This past weekend, Ben and I enjoyed a kid-less weekend. (Thanks Grandma and Grandpa!) Don’t get me wrong, we adore our kids. Really, there isn’t even a strong enough word in my vocabulary to begin to describe how nuts I am for them. But, every once in a while, we need to hear ourselves think. Or breathe. Or have a conversation without having to shout or repeat ourselves five tim
Just judging by the sheer number of desserts I have shared with you over the years, it’s clear I have a bit of a sweet tooth. As much as I enjoy multi-step cupcakes or a rich, indulgent cheesecake, brownies and/or cookies are my constant craving. To me, they are the comfort foods of the dessert world. Usually no frills and little fuss, just a square of dense chocolatey goodness, you can n
Broccoli is a favorite veggie in our household, and we go through at least a couple heads of it each week. In general, it tends to play more of a supporting role in our meals as a side dish rather than take the spotlight in a main dish. But not this time. Just like roasted broccoli as a side, this pasta with a creamy broccoli pesto sauce has become an all-star. The kids rarely ask for seconds
1. We spent time at the end of January/beginning of February redecorating our playroom. These paper star lanterns are one of my favorite details! 2. As I mentioned, Courtney surprised me with a visit for my 30th. We were all so glad to have her here, and Caroline especially enjoyed spending time with her. 3. Testing out my first cabling project. It turns out cabling is SO much easier than you w
Ever since I mentioned my recent birthday, I’ve had a lot of readers asking about my birthday cake. Those who have been reading for a while know that it is a tradition of mine to bake my own birthday cake. Those who don’t love to bake have a hard time understanding this. Wouldn’t I rather have someone else bake it for me? Or have one from a bakery? No and no. When you love
Well, my littlest baby is rapidly approaching two. TWO, people. Which means it has been almost a full year since I posted about her first birthday party, and offered a tutorial on how I made this sign. Oops. Sorry it didn’t happen sooner, but better late then never I guess!I first saw a sign similar to this on Etsy but it was overpriced like whoa. I figured I should at least try my hand
I love the feeling after our weekly produce delivery and grocery shopping trip when the fridge is bursting with fresh produce. So many delicious possibilities. My goal is that by the following week, the fridge looks nearly bare again because we ate (and did not waste) all of those ingredients. It always starts out well enough since it’s the weekend. But then the week starts, work starts,
We’re big fans of stuffed mushrooms in our house. It all started with these little babies, which have become a staple in our entertaining repertoire. The spinach and artichoke stuffed mushrooms were a sort of revelation when we realized we could eat stuffed mushrooms for dinner and it was a totally legit meal. And then Josie went ahead and knocked it out of the park by creating these lasa
I’m incredibly lucky in many areas of my life, and one of those areas is most definitely my in-laws. I feel awful for friends and coworkers who tell me hideous stories of the drama, nasty remarks, and more that they deal with, and I thank my lucky stars that I have zero ability to relate to this scenario. From day one, my in-laws have been nothing but welcoming and loving towards me. In t
In my never-ending quest to make as much from scratch as possible, I’ve conquered many staples that in the past, I would never have thought possible. Yeast breads and doughs have become second nature, I haven’t bought bottled salad dressing in a year or two, tortillas are so much better homemade, and I kicked my little yogurt container habit to the curb. This year, I’m hoping t
Our family likes to snack. Well, maybe it’s not exactly that we like it so much as it’s just a necessary part of our daily food rhythm. On weekdays, I pick up the kids after work and school, we drive home, and all three of us walk in the door ravenous. By the time we are home it’s well past what we would all prefer to be dinnertime. And so, snacks buy me time while I prepare
In general, I’m pretty good at sharing. In fact, I think I could be called generous in most respects. But not when it comes to dessert. Particularly when that dessert involves chocolate. Whenever Ben and I go out to dinner and decide to indulge in dessert, we usually split something. But the more chocolate it involves, the less inclined I am to share. When it’s chocolate mousse,
Some recipes come easily, and some take a little more time before they find their way. This is the latter, but it was well worth the wait. Red velvet cake is my favorite, if you’re forcing me to choose, and so the thought of a red velvet ice cream seemed pretty great. However, the majority of the “recipes” I’ve come across are simply ice cream with chunks of red velvet c
As you all know by know, I love me some ModCloth. I actually purchased this brand new zag top back in December and have been wearing the heck out of it ever since. (Technically they call it a dress, but in my wardrobe it’s a top. ) It is cute, super comfortable, and gets compliments all the time. I like to pair it will black leggings and gray boots.On some other dreadfully cold day back
So, you know how I mentioned that last week I said goodbye to my 20′s and I was…a little bummed about it? On my actual birthday things didn’t really improve. I worked as usual, picked the kids up from school and then on our way home, we were stuck in an unimaginable traffic jam that brought our commute to a total of two hours door to door. Two.hours. As a result, I missed my
1. We took a cue from Pinterest, and started a memory jar for 2013. We have been writing down memories here and there on small pieces of scrap paper and putting them in the jar. We’ll read them all on New Year’s Eve this year. It’s fun! 2. My friend and I were browsing downtown one evening and I found this necklace at Silver in the City. I adore it. 3. Caroline has started
Have you heard of sticky toffee pudding? Better yet, have you actually tasted sticky toffee pudding? If so, you get it. You totally get that behind this rather ambiguous name and monochromatic, unassuming facade is one of the very best desserts you could ever taste. Yeah, I said it.I first tried at sticky toffee pudding at R Bistro, one of my favorite Indy lunch spots. The menu is mostly sea
There are a crazy number of food holidays. I don’t know who comes up with these things, but these days it seems if you can think of a food, there is probably a day, week or even a month honoring that food. For the most part I pay no attention to these dates, save a few. National Grilled Cheese month in April is a no-brainer of course, and I cannot possibly resist Pi(e) Day. I usually for
It all started last January when Ben asked me what I wanted for my birthday. After some deliberation, I decided I was tired of staring at the decorator beige on our kitchen walls (well, many of our walls) and that I wanted to paint an accent wall in our kitchen. Then, after deciding that the new accent wall would be gray, I felt that wouldn’t really work with the beige, so we decided to ha
